The Public Access Weekly: They reminisce over you
If, like me, you are also a fan of The Walking Dead then you probably also spent most of Monday feeling a strange combination of shock, grief and melancholy. (Here, have sone virtual hugs.) Fortunately, we had a week full of Apple/Microsoft events and announcements to distract us, right? Continuing on the distraction train, let’s get into some Public Access news!
As promised, we now have two different types of Public Access members — those who can automatically publish stories, and those who need to submit their articles for editor approval first. (All new Public Access members will need editor approval on their first three posts; when a member has successfully completed three posts without requiring major changes they will be upgraded to full member status. Also, if you violate our rules often, you can expect to be moved to this new membership type.)
So far, it’s actually going pretty well! I’ve gotten a chance to help some new members improve their stories with suggestions, and have been able to assist those who have submitted articles that needed corrections. While the goal is to have every story reviewed and published (or returned) within 24-48 hours, I have to admit the volume of incoming stories is much bigger than anticipated! I’ll be working hard over the next few days to get a system in place to minimize the amount of time you’re waiting to hear back about your articles, in the meantime thank you so very much for all your patience and feedback.
While we were working on the new membership type we did temporarily pause in reviewing registrations for Public Access, but now that the new membership is up and running, we’re back to reviewing registrations as fast as possible! There are a lot of registrations waiting, and we’re trying to get through them this week so if you’ve been waiting you should hear from us soon!
Looking for something to read? Check out:
Amandine Le Pape’s first article for Public Access is a great analysis of the potential of instant messaging, AI, and bots to bridge other services and provide users with a comprehensive platform for all their web activity. It’s a terrific read, imaginative, detailed and well-written — and overlaps some with Yashasvi Raj Pant’s first Public Access story on Google’s Allo service.
Another new user, Imran Uddin, published a story on whether or not we’re really and truly ready for a future of driverless cars (Hint: Not so much… yet). Uddin touches on the nitty gritty details that make the process so complex, from how insurance coverage doesn’t address possible scenarios to the moral and ethical dilemmas that are presented by trying to program a car to protect both those inside and outside the vehicle.
Meanwhile, Keegan Green breaks down all the ins-and-outs of the Google Chromecast from design and set up to the 4K streaming offered by the Ultra version. The result is a great primer for those who are intrigued but not quite ready to pull the trigger yet. Props to Green for organizing the article into sections by commonly-asked questions (Are you up to speed? What do you get?).
Looking for something to write about? Mull over:
When it comes to wearables, the enthusiasm for smartwatches seems to be on an overall decline. But don’t tell that to Fossil, who just launched a set of traditional looking watches that feature activity tracking, notification vibrations and auto time setting. Can traditional watchmakers beat the smartwatch market by adding features to their products? Is the smartwatch fad dying out completely? And would you prefer a smartwatch made by a tech manufacturer like Apple or Samsung, or a more standard watch that includes smart features?
One of the many announcements this week was the shuttering of short-video service, Vine, which prompted some Engadget editors to write a eulogy detailing the ways they used Vine, loved it, hated it, or came back to it. Will you miss Vine? If so, why? Alternatively, weigh in on the reasons why Vine was shut down and what implications the closure has for other video apps.
Jessica Conditt’s coverage of IndieCade 2016 covered the ways in which the video game industry has increasingly focused on social issues from political upheaval to gang violence. The developers of titles such as We Are Chicago and 1979 Revolution weigh in on what inspired them to develop games that humanize an experience or perspective. However, such games are often criticized for being clumsy, or forcing a viewpoint. Is there a place for social commentary within video games? If so, in what way or aspect is it appropriate? And how should game developers use such inspiration in their work?
BlackBerry is working with AT&T to expedite a software fix for the ‘No Service’ issue on Priv
If you’re a Priv owner on AT&T who has been struck with the ‘No Service’ bug that has been affecting some AT&T Privs since mid-September, you’ll be pleased to know there has been some movement towards fixing the issue.
The root cause for this issue has been identified, and a solution will be made available shortly as BlackBerry is working with AT&T to expedite the release of a software fix. As soon as this is available the knowledge base article will be updated, as well as this thread so everyone is aware.
Unfortunately, considering the amount of time it has taken for a fix to come out, some folks have already moved on from their Priv as the numerous workarounds and device restarting became too much. Still, if you hung onto your Priv and are waiting for a definitive fix to come through, it shouldn’t be much longer now.
You can keep an eye on the BlackBerry Knowledge Base article to see when it gets updated or we’ll let you know when the fix is released. Now if only Verizon would pull their head out of the ground and release the Marshmallow update.
What creatives think of the Microsoft Surface Studio
Microsoft’s Surface Studio is a bold device. Ostensibly an all-in-one PC, it’s also a major play at winning more creatives over to the Windows way of life.
The bulk of the Studio is a 28-inch display, mounted on a pair of “zero gravity” hinges that allow it to act as a regular monitor or fold down into “Studio mode” for a a writing and drawing surface. In addition to 10-point multitouch, the display allows for interaction with a Surface Pen and a new accessory called the Surface Dial — a small metal puck that can be placed against the screen and rotated. The display runs at an ultra-high resolution (4,500 x 3,000) and can switch between the wide DCI-P3 color gamut and the more common sRGB with the push of a button — a useful feature allowing designers to see what their creations will look like on other devices.
Inside the base is a pretty powerful PC. The $3,000 model comes with an Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, a 2GB GeForce GTX 965M GPU and a 1TB hybrid drive, while the high-end $4,200 model has a Core i7 CPU, 32GB of RAM, a 4GB GeForce GTX 980M graphics card and a 2TB drive. At those prices, with the incredibly high-spec display and the focus on Pen input, the Studio is clearly not meant for the average user. Microsoft says it’s “designed for the creative process,” pitching it as the center of your workflow. But is this what that market wants, or needs? We spoke with a number of professionals across multiple fields, from video game design to illustration, to gauge their initial reaction, and see what Microsoft needs to nail for the Studio to be a success.
Microsoft has a head start
Microsoft is in a good position coming into this gambit. The Surface series, especially the most recent Pro 4 tablet and Book laptop, has been received positively. Both work with the Surface Pen stylus, and offer a cheap, all-in solution for working away from a desk.
Several creatives we spoke to did just that. Scott Coello, a freelancer animator and director, uses Wacom tablets like the Intuos and Cintiq as his main setup, and a Surface Pro 4 “for the road.” Comfort Love and Adam Withers, co-creators of Rainbow in the Dark, The Uniques and The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing Comics, use Wacom and Yiynova tablets with displays for the bulk of their work, and a Surface Pro 4 when not at their desks. “It’s like our digital sketchbook,” said Withers. Love continued: “We use it for presentations, working on scripts and lettering our comics on the road.”
Despite the good faith in the Surface as a device, the Surface Pen itself has a mixed reputation. Hayden Scott-Baron, a game designer and freelance illustrator, recently started using his Surface Pro 4 connected to an external monitor at his desk instead of an iMac. “The Surface Pen is pretty fantastic, but definitely not as comfortable as the Wacom pens for longer sessions,” Scott-Baron explained.
Pen imperfections
Latency — the Surface Pen has higher input lag than Wacom’s high-end solutions — is “not actually a deal breaker” for Scott-Baron, but “the lack of responsiveness with light pressure is a problem.” Other designers agreed. “The pressure sensitivity could be a little better,” said Love. “It’s hard to get a perfect taper on our lines while we’re drawing sometimes.” Indeed, sensitivity and handling are big complaints with the Pen.
“Anyone coming across from Wacom’s Cintiq or Intuos — and Apple’s iPad Pro — will understand that tilt and rotate is kind of important to the feel of drawing,” said Coello. The Surface Pen just doesn’t work well at sharp angles. “I’ve always found when I hold my pen in this position on a Surface, I can’t see the cursor as it’s registered itself underneath the nib, which makes it awkward if you’re working on finer details. I always end up having to hold my pen straight up right, which doesn’t feel natural whatsoever.”
Think about it: You typically hold a pen or pencil at an angle, and that angle can be oblique, especially when shading. Other styli are more capable of handling different grips and angles. As Coello alluded to, even Apple’s Pencil does a better job, although accuracy, latency and application support are huge issues there too.
The Pencil is simplistic, but although the Surface Pen offers more features, it also suffers from a lack of support and customization. “The side button and eraser is awkward to press, and can’t be customized to behave differently in different software,” Scott-Brown explained. “I’m lucky that Clip Studio lets me use it as a color picker, but in software Photoshop you’re limited to the default behavior. The lack of customization makes me worry that the Surface Pro will never allow such tweaks, unlike Wacom’s offerings which are very flexible.”
The Wacom problem
Comparisons with Wacom came up in every conversation — that’s no surprise, given it’s the market leader. Creatives are used to a high level of sensitivity, good handling and customization options. Applications like those offered in Adobe’s Creative Suite are geared towards being controlled with only a stylus. Wacom also offers accessories like the Express Key Remote, a small controller with 17 buttons and a touch ring that can be configured to perform various tasks, which can replace keyboard shortcuts in many applications.
The Wacom Cintiq 27QHD, with Express Key Remote.
Microsoft’s answer to this is the Dial. Placed on the Studio’s screen, it activates a radial menu, allowing you quick access to things like brush and color settings that you can cycle through and select by spinning it. It can also rotate documents, and track back through changes. To the casual observer, it’s one of the most interesting accessories in years. But Scott-Baron, who uses a Pro 4 daily, wasn’t convinced. “[It’s] large and goofy and seems like it needs more controls on there. Anything that could be done with the Dial could probably be done with a UI window instead, especially if I can use multitouch while using the pen.”
Only Coello said he would definitely buy a Dial. “We’re key command junkies,” Withers explained. “Our left hands are hovering over our keyboards constantly, and we’ve rigged up our primary art programs with a lot of custom commands. Having to take our hand off the board to use this little Dial thing — for the few things it would actually be useful for — would actually take longer than just tapping the keys that do more or less the same thing.”
The Dial also doesn’t have the full weight of Adobe’s support behind it. Though it will work in apps like Photoshop, interaction is limited to zooming and other basic functions — there’s no radial menu with all of Adobe’s tools to play with. There are third-party apps that support it fully, of course — Sketchable, Metal Canvas and Drawboard are some of the heavier hitters — but without Adobe, Autodesk and other big names on board, it’s an expensive gamble at this point.
The devil is in the detail
It’s these small details where Microsoft has missed the mark. It’s been easy for creatives to accept the Pen’s shortcomings or the Surface Pro 4’s lack of power because they’re part of a secondary device chain. It’s tough to trust that same basic proposition to be the center of your workflow. Especially for $3,000.
The majority of creatives we spoke to weren’t planning on moving over to the Studio. A lack of power and upgrade paths (the Studio’s internals aren’t upgradable like on a tower PC) were deciding factors. Bret Recor, founder and Creative Director at Box Clever, said he was “definitely interested in seeing how it can help us with our design process,” and is “more concerned about Windows 10’s stability with demanding software” than latency or input lag. He is also hoping to see if Microsoft offers models with higher-performance processors.
Withers said “it looks like an excellent piece of hardware,” but he has “always been really reluctant about closed-off systems like these where upgrading and replacing parts is largely off the table. At $3,000? That’s a hard pass. It doesn’t offer nearly enough improvements over the machines we have, and even if it did, indie comic creators like us just don’t have that kind of disposable income to throw around.”
“If I take the long view,” Comfort said, “I can see this sort of thing getting picked up by a lot of people down the line. If you look around the digital artist landscape in five to ten years, you might have a lot more of these kinds of computers being used by a lot more people. And if somebody were looking to go from a regular tablet to something like a Cintiq, this would be a really nice alternative that’s a similar price.”
Scott-Baron, however, said Microsoft’s announcement has “pretty much killed any interest” he had in picking up a [Wacom] Cintiq. “I’m not planning to buy the Surface Studio right away, but it’s my first choice for my next desktop PC solution. I would gladly move all my games development work to the Studio, but I would never give up my Surface Pro 4.”
Olly Skillman-Wilson, a game artist working on The Signal From Tölva, uses a Wacom Intuos 4 every day for work and general computing, and says “there is certainly some appeal in the thought of being able to do 3D high polygon sculpting on a huge retina display.” However, he can’t justify the cost for “the specs of a desktop from two years ago,” as “it’s just not something that is going to be replacing the complex chain of tools that make up my very specific workflow. A 3D version of paint is not going to, and probably not trying to, replace that.”
“Indie comic creators like us just don’t have that kind of disposable income to throw around.”
Coello was on the fence. He currently has his Cintiq tablet on an Ergotron mount, which allows for similar display flexibility. “This setup is near-identical: It would slot right into my workflow,” he said. “Will definitely be buying the the Dial, but the Surface Studio? I dunno. I like the option of being able to upgrade my components if something goes wrong or it’s time to upgrade.” Nonetheless, he said it was a very interesting proposition, and that seemed to be a general consensus, at least when it comes to the idea of the Studio.
Another sentiment held by many is that it’s great to see Microsoft bringing these new ideas to the table. Wacom pulls in hundreds of millions of dollars every year. A 27-inch Wacom Cintiq costs $2,800, and it needs to be plugged into a computer at least as powerful as a Surface Studio. So, Microsoft’s $3,000 starting price doesn’t seem crazy after all.
This is Microsoft’s first attempt at a desktop, and the first time any company has tried to put this level of functionality into a single, standalone device. Put the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book next to the original Surface and Surface RT, and it’s easy to see what a difference some refinement can make. It’ll certainly be interesting to see how improved the Studio is in four years. If it really wants to own this niche market, it’ll need to produce Studios with different screen sizes, performance levels and price points. But, from initial reactions, Microsoft is off to a very good start.
Unearthed Clinton emails garner renewed FBI scrutiny (updated)
Although the FBI previously concluded that Hillary Clinton should not face charges over the usage of her personal email server, the Bureau apparently isn’t done looking into Clinton’s emails after all. “In previous congressional testimony, I referred to the fact that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had completed its investigation of former Secretary Clinton’s personal email server,” FBI Director James Comey said in a letter sent out Friday. “Due to recent developments, I am writing to supplement my previous testimony.”
“In connection with an unrelated case,” Comey’s letter continues, “the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation. I am writing to inform you that the investigative team briefed me on this yesterday, and I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation.”
Comey concluded: “Although the FBI cannot yet assess whether or not this material may be significant,” and I cannot predict how long it will take us to complete this additional work, I believe it is important to update your Committees about our efforts in light of my previous testimony.”
Engadget will, of course, update as we know more.
Update: The Associated Press has tweeted a clarification from an unnamed US official, stating that the newly discovered emails did not come from Clinton’s private email server.
BREAKING: US official: Newly discovered emails related to Clinton investigation did not come from her private server.
— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) October 28, 2016
Update: The New York Times is reporting that the new emails were discovered after the FBI seized electronic devices belonging to Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her husband Anthony Weiner.
Update: John Podesta, the chairman of the Clinton campaign, has responded to Comey’s letter and has called on the FBI director to “immediately provide the American people more information than what is contained in his letter”.
“The director owes it to the American people to immediately provide the full details of what he is now examining,” Podesta continued. “We are confident this will not produce any conclusions different from the one the FBI reached in July.”
Via: New York Times, CNBC
Amazon Prime arrives in China to further challenge Alibaba
With over 63 million people already paying for Prime, Amazon is now expanding its subscription service to one of the largest marketplaces in the world: China. The retailer has announced that mainland users can now enjoy free, unlimited shipping on millions of domestic items, as well as others from the special “overseas orders” category. As part of a promotion that lasts until February, Amazon is offering the membership for $188 yuan (around $30) for the first year. Once this rate ends, Prime will cost 388 yuan (about $60) every 12 months.
Amazon says certain packages could take five to nine days to be delivered within China, specifically those being shipped from the US and other fulfillment centers abroad. Of course, the launch of Prime in China is all part of Amazon’s plan to further challenge Alibaba on its home turf, where it has more than 434 million active users.
The question now is how will the Chinese tech giant react to the news. After all, we know Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of Alibaba, isn’t known for being a man of few words.
Source: TechCrunch
Someone really wants ‘No Man’s Sky’ developers to apologize
The internet hivemind’s vile side was at it again this morning. This time, by apparently hacking the Twitter, Linkedin and email accounts of No Man’s Sky developer Hello Games. Buckle up because this gets messy. “No Man’s Sky was a mistake.” Following an extended period of silence from the developer, that (now deleted) tweet went out earlier today. Thinking something was afoot, Kotaku reached out to the developer via email and was told that, “No, the tweet was not a hack, but rather a disgruntled employee. The email that we sent however was official.” Except the publication had received no prior emails.
When Polygon reached out, the culture and video game site was told, by someone apparently posing as lead developer Sean Murray, that “The tweet is from me, but somebody from the team took it down. We have not been coping well.”
Both Kotaku and Polygon received the following email:
“No Man’s Sky was a mistake.
I have contacted you because the silence from Hello Games has been unwarranted and unprofessional. The community has asked me to speak up, and I have a confession to make. The game was simply unfinished upon arrival. Our hand was forced by not only Sony, but the community as well. The constant harassment and absolute gross misconduct on the community’s part has made it hard to fulfill our artistic vision, while the pressure from Sony to release the game as soon as possible forced us to cut key features. I want to apologize for what we did not deliver on, as the game does not meet up to what our artistic vision was.
However, we do wish that the community was more understanding of our situation. Many people have asked for refunds despite our promise to continually improve and update No Man’s Sky. We are just a small studio that has poured our blood, sweat, and tears into this project. The complete lack of respect when it comes to the work we have done absolutely saddens not only myself, but the team as well. We want to improve the game to the point we dreamed of it being and beyond.
I hope everyone affected understands,
Sean Murray”
And then, Murray began tweeting from his personal account that there was a server hack, chiding that the team was watching Mr. Robot episodes to help find a solution.
If anything was a mistake, it was using Linked In without 2FA.
— Sean Murray (@NoMansSky) October 28, 2016
Kotaku writes that the tweets in question were sent via a linked account on your college professor’s favorite social networking site.
.@NoMansSky 100% not hacked anymore… obviously those mails and that tweet were fake. Back to work 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻
— Hello Games (@hellogames) October 28, 2016
When No Man’s Sky came out this summer it was met with a heap of backlash. Players have incited investigations over false advertising, claiming the game they bought wasn’t what they’d been promised. The game’s subreddit was shuttered after its moderator calling it a “hate filled wastehole of no actual discussion.” It’s since been reopened, but the rage has metastisized into more nefarious forms like today’s hacks and campaigns to lower the game’s Steam rating. Imagine what could happen if the perpetrators put this type of effort into doing good for the world.
We’ve reached out for additional information and will update this post should it arrive.
Source: Kotaku, Polygon
Facebook enables advertisers to exclude users by ‘ethnic affinity’
Facebook’s features let advertisers limit which users see their material, ideally those who will be more interested in their products. But currently included in the “demographics” section of their ad-targeting tool is the ability to select which users see material based on their “ethnic affinity,” which the social titan began offering two years ago to aid its multicultural advertising. Facebook automatically lumps users into these categories based on their activity and interests — categories which advertisers can choose to exclude or specifically target.
Since the social network doesn’t ask users to racially identify themselves, Facebook collects activity data and then assigns each user an “ethnic affinity.” This is basically a preference for stories, events and organizations that coincide with those the social network believes are also held by a certain ethnic group.
At this year’s South by Southwest, a Facebook entertainment executive and Universal Pictures’ EVP of digital marketing held a panel explaining how the studio harnessed the social network’s “ethnic affinity” ad targeting tools to show different trailers of the movie Straight Outta Compton to different ethnic groups. The preview shown to Facebook-assigned “non-multicultural” (non-African-American, non-Hispanic) users showcased the film’s characters wielding guns, driving tricked-out cars and clashing with the police. The trailer shown to African-American-affinity users seemed to be from a wholly different film, a memoir about real performers’ historical impact.
Targeted advertising isn’t new, especially for Facebook, but targeting or excluding ethnic groups is dangerous legal territory. In a report released this morning, ProPublica suggested that the “ethnic affinity” preferential advertising potentially violates the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which makes it illegal to print or publish, or allow to be printed or published, any housing advertisement that indicates preference or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin. That was a specific elaboration of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which legally forbids any ads from listing prohibited preference, limits or discrimination when recruiting employees.
Facebook’s policies forbid using its ad-targeting tools to “discriminate against, harass, provoke, or disparage users or to engage in predatory advertising practices.” If advertisers do use Custom Audiences, they have to abide by its terms, which were updated September 30th, and comply with local laws. “Ethnic affinity” seems as close to targeting a racial group as Facebook can get without running aground of the above laws, though Ars Technica points out that the “affinity” group definitions resemble ethnic makeup far more than shared interests.
ProPublica noted that they created an ad seeking housing hunters on Facebook that excluded anyone with an “affinity” for minority groups, which they note was approved 15 minutes after submission. When they showed prominent civil rights lawyer John Relman their options to exclude minority-affinity users from seeing their Facebook ad, he said it was a blatant violation of the Fair Housing Act, and would be therefore illegal. When asked for comment, Facebook said that ProPublica’s ad was for an event about housing but not seeking individual renters or buyers; Thus its targeting applied to potential attendees, not customers.
But it’s unclear whether Facebook’s digital advertisements would be bound by the same laws prohibiting racial discrimination in ads appearing in print publications. Is publicly broadcasting an ad saying “whites only need apply” the same as only showing certain advertisements to certain ethnic-interest-aligned groups?
In a blog post, Facebook’s head of multicultural Christian Martinez stated that the social network expressly prohibits so-called “negative exclusion,” like advertisers listing ethnic or gender preference for tenants or employees. Exclusion targeting, however, is a common tactic in the ad industry to show material only to people for whom it’s relevant — or who have the right cultural context. As Martinez writes: “This prevents audiences for community-specific ads from seeing a generic ad targeted to a large group and helps avoid the offensive outcome that traditional advertising can often create for people in the minority.”
Facebook said a business used the “ethnic affinity” filter to target the US Hispanic community during the 2014 World Cup; Likewise, companies could use it for marketing hair products for African-Americans or for Spanish beer. This targeted delivery of material catering to certain ethnic groups is common to the advertising industry.
“All major brands have strategies to speak to different audiences with culturally relevant creative. Just for purposes of illustration, a car company will run creative for one of their vehicles, but will have one creative execution targeting the Hispanic affinity cluster in Spanish. They may create a different creative for the African American affinity cluster featuring black actors and stressing another insight that is specific to that group. All major brands do this because they know that audiences respond better to creative that speaks to them specifically, ” Facebook said in a statement.
Source: Ars Technica, ProPublica
Windows 10’s focus on friends could make it a more human OS
One of the more intriguing things Microsoft announced this week wasn’t fancy new hardware. It was a simple addition to the Windows 10 task bar: small icons representing the people you interact with the most. They could be your family or friends, but for whatever reason, they’re important to you. Dubbed MyPeople, it’s a way for you to easily share just about anything on your computer with those folks, be it files, links or a cute emoji-like notification. And, it gives you a central place to keep track of interactions with those people, whether they take the form of emails or Skype chats.
While it might seem like just a minor addition to the upcoming Windows 10 Creators Update, the utility of MyPeople is striking. It’s the sort of mundane thing lots of folks would actually use; which isn’t something you can say about Windows 10’s flashier features, like built-in game broadcasting. And with its focus on people and reinforcing social bonds, it also helps shift Windows drop its stodgy, business-focused image in favor of something friendlier.
As Microsoft’s Allison O’Mahony tells it, the feature came about after conversations with Windows users revealed most of them mainly interact with a handful of people. “We started thinking about what could we do to build that same relationship, and build it within Windows,” she told Engadget. That led her team to think about ways to complete common tasks, like sharing, with more immediacy. “These are people we are highly interruptible for,” she added.
On top of her research, MyPeople also follows CEO Satya Nadella’s belief that Microsoft needs to think about building a more human operating system. “What’s more human than the people who make up our day-to-day lives?” O’Mahony noted. In general, she says Microsoft is now thinking more about how it can be more empathetic towards users.
You can look at the “Shoulder Tap” feature in MyPeople as another way to reinforce your social connections. Basically, it lets you send adorable notifications to your friends that resemble emojis. But on a deeper level, it’s meant to simulate the way you’d gently hold a friend to encourage or support them. It’s a navel-gazing notion, for sure, but it’s surprising coming from a software giant like Microsoft. I’m used to hearing concepts like that from young startups.
In some ways, the feature seems like a more focused version of the social network Path, which also emphasized connections with your closest contacts (first with up to 150 friends, and later up to 500). Path was a change of pace from the social media urge to acquire as many followers as possible. MyPeople takes that notion even further to focus on a handful of contacts. The ability to see everything related to your friends in one spot could potentially make you more mindful as well. It’s another way to avoid missing an important email or IM.
MyPeople’s prominent positioning on the Windows 10 task bar shows how much Microsoft is betting on it. Cortana was the last feature to take up such prime real estate, and that virtual assistant is now part of the company’s core software strategy across several platforms. O’Mahony describes the task bar as “beachfront real estate,” and she’s well aware of the pressure of managing such an up-front feature. There’s the potential for MyPeople to be widely adopted, but if it doesn’t take off it’ll be a prominent failure.
Without the chance to test MyPeople extensively, it’s hard to judge it just yet. But there’s certainly potential for it to change the way people use Windows. It also seems like something that could work well on other platforms, like the Xbox One, iOS and Android. We’re overloaded with social connections everywhere, and there’s a need for apps that keep you focused on the people who actually matter to you. In a similar vein, MyPeople could also help Cortana learn more about your close friends. O’Mahony says her group is “having conversations” with the Xbox and Cortana teams, but there’s nothing to say yet about any potential integrations.
“When we think abut these people, it’s almost like we’re talking about a wearable,” O’Mahony said. “They’re really in a container. Where you go, you really want to take them with you.”
The best cheap projector
By Chris Heinonen
This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer’s guide to the best technology. When readers choose to buy The Wirecutter’s independently chosen editorial picks, they may earn affiliate commissions that support their work. Read the full article here.
After testing five projectors for 70 hours, we’ve concluded that the BenQ TH670 is the best cheap projector. It offers the best contrast ratio and the best color quality of everything we tested, as well as 1080p resolution, low input lag for video games, integrated speakers, plenty of lumens for any size screen, a backlit remote, and up to 10,000 hours of life from a single bulb. It also provides the best selection of image adjustments, with settings that are easy to understand, so it gives you more control over the displayed image than its competitors do.
Who this is for
If you already own a 1080p projector, you can stick with what you have. A new, cheap projector is unlikely to offer better performance than a 1080p projector that is a few years old. These days, 1080p resolution is finally becoming affordable enough to appear in models at this pricing tier.
If you have an older 720p or lower-resolution projector, something meant for business presentations, or a cheap LCD projector, a new 1080p model can offer improvements. With a 100-inch or larger image, the difference between 720p and 1080p is much more noticeable than it would be on a 32- or 50-inch TV screen. Newer projectors are also much brighter than models were a few years ago, giving the image more pop and making for a better viewing experience.
Though we like the BenQ TH670, we recommend that anyone looking at a cheap projector seriously consider saving up a bit more (around $200 more as of this writing) and getting our current pick for the best $1,000 projector, the BenQ HT2050.
How we picked and tested
Our contenders (top to bottom): the InFocus SP1080, the Optoma GT760, the BenQ TH670, and the ViewSonic PJD7828HDL. Photo: Chris Heinonen
Because most people buy a projector because they want a large image—often 100 inches or larger—having double the resolution of a 720p projector produces easily noticeable results. We decided to look only at cheap projectors with 1080p resolution. This eliminated all non-DLP models from consideration. All of the LCD models in this price range were 720p, or maxed out at a 16×10 resolution such as 1280×800.
Every projector for this test group had to have at least one HDMI input. We also needed a brightness of at least 1,000 lumens to clearly differentiate this category from pico projectors in the same price range. In addition, we looked for integrated speakers, wider zoom range, and standard USB ports to easily connect a streaming device (such as our favorite media streamer, the Roku Streaming Stick) and power it directly from the projector.
Comparing two projectors side by side in a darkened room. Photo: Chris Heinonen
After reading all the reviews we could find for models that fit those criteria, we called in the ones that looked promising: the BenQ TH670, the InFocus ScreenPlay SP1080, the Optoma GT760, and the ViewSonic LightStream PJD7828HDL. We tested all the contenders on a 100-inch Silver Ticket white screen, our current pick for the best projector screen, and measured the results using CalMAN software with i1Pro2 and C6 meters. We also compared each projector side by side on the screen using an HDMI repeater. For most of the testing, we focused on the best image we could get from the projector when calibrating using only a Blu-ray disc; we took this step because we assume most inexpensive projectors won’t get a professional calibration costing hundreds of dollars. We watched a variety of TV, streaming, and Blu-ray content on all the projectors.
Our pick
The BenQ TH670 is our top pick. Photo: Chris Heinonen
The BenQ TH670 is the best cheap projector for most people because it offers the best combination of contrast ratios and color accuracy in this price range, and lets you choose which is more important to you. It has a very bright image, lots of flexibility in the controls, a decent zoom range, integrated speakers, a backlit remote control, and 3D support.
Zoom and focus controls on the BenQ TH670. Photo: Chris Heinonen
The BenQ TH670 offered better contrast ratios than all the other inexpensive 1080p projectors we tested. Contrast ratio refers to the difference between the black and white levels a projector can create; it’s by far the most important aspect of a display’s picture quality. A projector with more contrast offers an image that is more lifelike and dynamic than one with a lower contrast ratio. All the DLP projectors we tested achieve their contrast ratios by using a feature called BrilliantColor. What sets the BenQ TH670 apart is that it gives you the ability to disable this feature completely, so you can choose between better contrast or more accurate color. You can read more about color management in our full guide.
Among the remote controls for the projectors we tested, the BenQ’s stood out. Photos: Chris Heinonen
The BenQ’s integrated speakers do the job but aren’t anything special. For impromptu movie nights or video game sessions, they’ll suffice. If you’re having everyone over to watch football on your big screen, however, the yells of everyone watching will easily overwhelm the sound. Having the integrated speakers is better than not, but they won’t replace a true pair of speakers.
In the most accurate picture mode, the BenQ TH670 produces 970 lumens with BrilliantColor off and 1,939 lumens with it on. On the 100-inch Silver Ticket screen, 970 lumens creates an image that’s 32 foot-lamberts bright. For comparison, the SMPTE-recommended brightness for a projector screen in a dark room is only 14 to 16 foot-lamberts, so the BenQ TH670 is plenty bright. Even when the lamp hits half brightness in a few thousand hours, it will still be bright enough. And if you want to go even bigger, the TH670 creates an image of 23 foot-lamberts on a 120-inch screen.
Runner-up
Our runner-up, the InFocus ScreenPlay SP1080. Photo: Chris Heinonen
If the TH670 isn’t available and you don’t want to spend the extra money on BenQ’s HT2050 or HT1075, the InFocus ScreenPlay SP1080 is your next best option. In our tests, this model came in second to the BenQ TH670 in color accuracy and contrast ratio. Unlike the TH670, it offers no way to disable BrilliantColor. It also provides only a single HDMI input, and it lacks a standard USB Type-A port to power a streaming stick.
As for picture quality, the whites on the InFocus SP1080 are slightly bluish next to those of the TH670, though this difference is hard to notice without making a direct comparison. Overall, looking for one of the BenQ models is worthwhile—the TH670 is a nicer projector and worth the small premium over the InFocus SP1080.
Upgrade pick
If you want a better image, look at our picks in our guide to the best $1,000 projector. Our current pick in that category, the BenQ HT2050, is only slightly more expensive than the BenQ TH670. For the additional money, you get much better contrast ratio and more accurate color. This model is easier to install thanks to lens shift and a wider zoom range, and it offers much quieter operation and better performance overall. And dual HDMI ports make hooking multiple devices to it easier.
Care and maintenance
All of these projectors use UHP lamps that need replacing over time. The lamp in the BenQ TH670 is rated for 4,000 to 10,000 hours depending on which mode (Eco or Normal) you run the projector in. Even at four hours of use a day, you should get three-plus years out of the bulb before it requires replacing. When that time rolls around, we recommend buying directly from the manufacturer, as counterfeit lamps are very common elsewhere. Counterfeits can explode, damaging the projector’s internals, and we’ve seen cases where replacement bulbs are dimmer than the half-dead ones they replaced.
We recommend using a Blu-ray disc (you can also use the THX app for iOS or Android if you don’t have a Blu-ray player) to set up your projector correctly. We advise against copying picture settings from what other people post on the Internet, even for the same exact model, because we’ve found that these usually lead to a worse image.
This guide may have been updated by The Wirecutter. To see the current recommendation, please go here.
Note from The Wirecutter: When readers choose to buy our independently chosen editorial picks, we may earn affiliate commissions that support our work.
That time your smart toaster broke the internet
Where were you the day the internet died?
Last Friday the internet had its biggest hiccup to date when a whole bunch of major websites were maliciously knocked offline. Harnessing the weak security of internet-connected devices, like DVRs and cameras, the attackers used botnets implanted on the devices to traffic-overload the one business keeping those sites’ domain names functional.
It was devastation by way of smart toasters and web-enabled vibrators. The bot-herders knocked out a range of sites including Amazon, Netflix, The New York Times, Reddit, Twitter, Spotify, Playstation, Airbnb, Heroku, Vox, The Boston Globe, PayPal, and many others.
Reactions were as you’d expect. Wikileaks was sure it was all about them. Fingers were pointed at Russia. Infosec smarty-pantses blamed consumers for doing security wrong. Hackers said “I told you so” (and they were right).
Lots and lots of people got justifiably mad at companies who make insecure products. Major outlets demonstrated their infosec illiteracy by calling the incident a new kind of weapon, and describing DDoS as a hack. It was all very annoying.
It’s okay, I’m impressed by size, too
Nothing about it was new, nor did it come as a complete surprise for those familiar with IoT security, save for the size and length of the hit.
The October 21st takedown was a huge DDoS (short for Distributed Denial of Service) and it lasted the better part of the workday in the US. The attackers smartly targeted Dyn, a major East Coast domain name service (DNS) provider, and the effect was stunning. It was especially harsh on businesses that don’t host their DNS across different providers, putting all their domain eggs in Dyn’s one basket.
The attack was done via the Mirai botnet. This is a network of bots implanted in computers and internet-connected devices that respond to the commands of their controller, all unbeknownst to whoever owns the infected computer or smart toilet. Botnets have been around and used for DDoS for as long as there have been internet connected devices, and they are as easy to build as they are to rent or buy.
In 2012 an anonymous security researcher published the Internet Census 2012, revealing that they’d created a botnet called Carna in over 400,000 embedded devices, such as printers. Their botnet was designed to deliver information from infected machines to create a census of connected — and vulnerable — computers and devices.
That same year botnets emerged in the popular consciousness when security firm TrendMicro released their report Russian Underground 101, revealing that botnets were available for around $2 an hour, or $700 wholesale. In 2014, infosec company Proofpoint found an attack in which over 100,000 conventional household “smart” appliances had been turned into a botnet for spam attacks.
This isn’t the first time a DNS business has been targeted in a botnet attack. In June 2004, Akamai DNS servers were targeted in a botnet DDoS that took out access to the websites of Apple, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo.
Nothing here is new. The only thing different is that IoT devices, and their widely known issues of shitty security, can no longer be ignored. They’re being demonstrated as powerful tools of disruption and possible destruction, and with our economy and politics delicately balanced on the internet, we all have a lot to lose.
The Botnet of Things
And what a demonstration it was. If someone’s selling botnet services, that was a hell of a sales pitch. Forget taking out your enemy’s website — now you can take out their whole country. It might also be a test case for future attacks.
Either way, this week we’ve been awash in think pieces. On one hand, it’s like every luddite has his day as tech-phobic pundits insist that the sky is falling and everything is broken — not helpfully contributing to the security and breach fatigue we already experience.
I don’t remotely expect anything resembling security from connected appliances. The makers of “smart” refrigerators, internet enabled DVRs, and even IP surveillance cameras aren’t trying to do security. Nor do they care. There are some exceptions, of course, like with Nest and other difficult to exploit specialty items. And some devices, like routers, are known for being “dual purpose” home implants, like Huawei’s famously backdoored routers, which worked fine as routers, and also pretty great for spying on whatever network they were configured to.
Other think pieces this week are about how we can try to stop our unwilling participation in the botnet-of-things we’re suddenly a part of. Preventing the next attack is the name of the game, but it’s one we’re very late to.
And while the suggestions are great, they’re far over the heads of non-technical IoT consumers. Most users of these devices are only recently aware of how hackable their connected teakettle is. And they’re pretty settled into what they can do about it, which is a whole lot of “not much.”
Security industry figureheads such as Dan Kaminsky think it’s a long overdue wake-up call to force the security industry, along with hardware and software makers, to improve themselves, and fast. Telling press that this might finally be the cold shower vendors needed, Kaminsky said “The unifying principle of the internet is reliability, and systems went down. That tends to cause improvement. ‘If we don’t do this, bad things will happen’ is not as compelling as ‘if we don’t do this, bad things will happen again’.”
If the makers of these addictively convenient gadgets are consistent in one thing, it’s a business strategy of ‘sell more, fix it if we get bad press’. And they will keep going this way until something major happens to change it. We have little choice in the matter.
So far, only one vendor has responded to the October 21st attacks. After it was identified by security researchers as having made devices used in Friday’s takedowns, Chinese firm Hangzhou Xiongmai Technology was compelled to recall some of its surveillance webcams sold in the US.
Like many other web-connected products of its kind, Xiongmai’s cams were called out for being shipped with basic security flaws. The company will only be recalling 10,000 cameras.
XiongMai is recalling 10,000 of their 500,000+ insecure IoT products. That’s only 2 percent. https://t.co/Jqzewpi0mI
— Jeremy Kirk (@Jeremy_Kirk) October 26, 2016
China, for its part, is taking the attention as a personal insult. Rather than offer to examine security practices for the betterment of all, the country is blaming users for not doing security right, and threatening to sue anyone who says China’s companies have crap security practices. But I guess you can’t blame them for being sensitive after the whole Huawei-backdoor debacle.
Companies and users aside, everyone wants to know who did it. Security company FlashPoint pointed the finger at “script kiddies” or “skids” — derisive terms for junior attackers who do the hacking equivalent of serving soup from a can and trying to pretend they made it from scratch. F-Secure’s Mikko Hypponen agreed, telling TechCrunch, “I think they are right. I don’t believe the Friday attackers were financially or politically motivated. It was such an untargeted attack, it’s hard to find a good motive for it. So: kids.”
In a departure from the season’s sabre-rattling at Russia, the US government said it thinks skids did it, too.
Snatching the spotlight from Wikileaks and skids alike, a crew called New World Hackers took credit this week — and then promptly retired. Before hanging up their black hats, NWH gave an interview to We Are Change, and gave a convoluted reason for Friday’s attack: to threaten the Russian government into leaving the US elections alone.
“The reason for this attack was simply because Russia is against the U.S.,” they told We Are Change. “We wanted to send Russia a warning, so they would think twice before performing cyber attacks against the U.S. Wikileaks is our friend, also, and we will leave that statement as is.”
Whether or not New World Hackers did it, one thing is true: Some hackers don’t give a fuck. The hackers who sucker-punched Dyn potentially have the ability to change the conversation about the way these big companies are playing chicken with both our device security and the fragility of the internet’s structures, but they didn’t. Instead, they did something that was big, and somewhat artful, but fell short of having any purpose other than giving us a short break from Reddit’s Trump troll hive.
I have no problem with artful attacks, and I’ll even cheer for them if they restore a little justice somewhere. Like Hacking Team and PhineasFisher, or the Panama Papers.
Those are great stories. But this story, of October 21st and weak device security taking out swaths of the internet, is destined to end poorly. And it will do so by design.
AIVAnet 