Using Eve Energy and HomeKit to turn on your Christmas lights

It’s the season of good will and that means at some point you are going to decking the halls with boughs of holly, or more likely the tree with Christmas lights.

It will no doubt look amazing, until you realise that the plug socket for the lights is at the back under the tree in what is probably the hardest to reach part of your room.

At this point you have a number of options. The first is to spend the end of every evening until the start of January crawling under your Christmas tree to reach the switch to turn off the lights before you go to bed. The second is to invest in an unsightly extension cable and hope that your lights cable will reach so you can then easily reach the plug.

There is a smarter, more “connected” way of turning them off though. Use Apple HomeKit and a HomeKit enabled plug socket like the Elgato Eve.

Here’s how:

Step 1 – Get an Eve Energy

Eve Energy is a smart plug that is available for the EU and the US that lets you plug in a lamp, fan or in this case Christmas tree lights and be able to control that device using Siri or with a simple tap.

Aside from the ability to use Siri to turn Eve Energy connected devices on or off, you’ll also be able to assign custom names to them, combine them into groups and create scenes to control a few of them at once. You can also use the Elgato Eve Energy in connection with other HomeKit enabled devices.

Elgato

Step 2 – Connect Eve Energy to the Eve App

Take the plug out the box, scan the special HomeKit code on the back via the Elgato Eve app, (or the Apple Home app if you prefer) and your iPhone camera. Name your plug something easy to say like Christmas tree lights.

Step 3 – Plug in your Christmas lights

Plug in your regular, traditional, not intelligent Christmas lights to the Eve Energy socket and it into the wall. Yes, you will have to probably crawl under the tree for this bit, but it’s only the once.

Step 4 – Hey Siri

Now all that’s left to do is say “Hey Siri turn off Christmas tree lights” and wait a breathless second for the lights to turn off. You’ll no doubt be crowned a demi-god of tech gadget wizardry in your house from now till Christmas, and hopefully beyond.

Step 5 – Apple TV automation

For extra kudos, set up an automation using Apple TV 4 so that when you are 50 yards from your house your Christmas tree lights will come on automatically because it will know you are near. Alternatively, if you’d like to add a little Christmas magic for your kids. A strategically placed Eve Motion Sensor would enable the tree to light up whenever movement is detected. Or alternatively a sort of Santa security device that alerts your phone to any unscheduled present meddling.

The Eve Energy smart plug connects to your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch via Bluetooth Smart.

Android 7.1.1 set for Dec 5 release on Nexus + Pixel devices

Vodafone Australia lets slip the launch date for the next version of Android.

Google has already stated on a few occasions that the final release of Android 7.1.1 Nougat will take place in early December, but now we have a tentative date to work with. Vodafone Australia has published an update advisory for the Nexus 6P, saying the OTA to Android 7.1.1, build NMF26F, will start to hit the Huawei-made phone from December 6 local time. It’s worth remembering that Australia is 13 to 18 hours ahead of the United States, so in the U.S. the update would likely hit sometime on the previous day, Monday December 5. (Google usually starts serving up system images around noon PST when a new Android version lands.)

New features to the 6P, and the first numbered update for the Pixels.

The new update will bring with it the December 5, 2016 Android security patch, Vodafone says.

Carriers get new updates head of time for testing, and in the past, update advisories like this from the likes of Verizon and Sprint have turned out to be accurate. December 5-6 is also well within the timeframe that we’d expect a new monthly security patch. Google has previously said that Nexus and Pixel phones will receive 7.1.1 within the same timeframe, so expect OTAs (and system images) to be available around that same time.

A stable release for Android 7.1.1 is also the starting point for other manufacturers wanting to update existing phones to this new version of Android, whereas previously 7.1 had been exclusive to the Pixel and Pixel XL.

The update will bring new features like app shortcut menus to the Nexus 6P, while giving the Pixel phones (which shipped on 7.1) their first Android version bump. The update for the Pixels should also include the new raise-to-wake and tap-to-wake features included in a mid-month update for Canadian units.

Android Nougat

• Android 7.0 Nougat: Everything you need to know
• Will my phone get Android Nougat?
• Google Pixel + Pixel XL review
• All Android Nougat news
• How to manually update your Nexus or Pixel
• Join the Discussion

OnePlus 3T now available in the UK + Europe

£399 for 64GB, £439 for 128GB.

Today is the European launch day for the OnePlus 3T, the mid-cycle refresh of OnePlus’s popular affordable flagship. The phone is available from the manufacturer’s UK store with 5-day shipping times for both the 64GB model (at £399) and the 128GB variant (at £439) in the new “gunmetal” color. The elusive rose gold OnePlus 3T is still marked as “coming soon.”

In addition, O2 UK is also stocking the OnePlus 3T on a range of price plans starting at £31 per month. Right now O2’s only selling the phone on contract, with no PAYG price listed.

The OnePlus 3T builds on its predecessor with a faster Snapdragon 821 processor, a bigger 3,400mAh battery, a 16-megapixel front camera and tuned-up software. AC’s Andrew Martonik recently reviewed the phone, and was impressed by the value it offers even at a slightly higher price point.

Even with the modest price bump, the OnePlus 3T is an amazing value. It has great hardware, slick and responsive software, amazing battery life, strong rear camera and every internal spec you could want. Even its few weaknesses, like slightly low screen brightness, lack of waterproofing and questionable software update frequency, are minimal bad marks on what is otherwise an exceptional phone.

See at OnePlus
See at O2

OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T

• OnePlus 3 review: Finally, all grown up
• The OnePlus 3T is official
• OnePlus 3 specs
• OnePlus 3T vs. OnePlus 3: What’s the difference?
• Latest OnePlus 3 news
• Discuss OnePlus 3 in the forums

OnePlus

Huge No Man’s Sky Foundation update makes it well worth visiting again

No Man’s Sky polarised opinion on launch like few games in memory. We loved it, but many didn’t feel they got the game they were promised.

It was hampered by issues on the PC version and plenty of PS4 gamers found it lacking in gameplay or variety.

We were more than happy to aimlessly travel from planet to planet, finding it a calming, peaceful experience. But, we’ll be honest, the novelty eventually wore off and other games grabbed our attention more.

Now we’ll be heading back to the pastel shaded universe though as a massive update has landed. It adds so much that naysayers might even find the game they wanted in the first place.

The Foundation update was revealed on 25 November but is now available to download on PC or PS4. It improves many of the visuals, with new modes for owners of lesser spec PCs to improve performance.

• 50 different planets from No Man’s Sky revealed, only 18 quintillion yet to go
• What is No Man’s Sky and why should you care about it?
• No Man’s Sky preview: 10 hours in and it’s fiercely good fun

There are also now planets with no life at all, and new plants to harvest. There are also two new game modes, with a survival mode being far more challenging and a creative mode giving you the keys to the kingdom, so to speak. In the latter, you can explore the universe without limits. The original “normal” mode is still there too.

However, the biggest changes come to the gameplay itself, with base building being introduced. You can construct your own, bespoke outpost from the shell of an abandoned one. You can even hire aliens to man different stations inside. Teleporters in space stations will also get you to your base in an instant so you don’t have to travel through galaxies just to get home.

And you can grow new biome dependent crops inside, to make your base building more simple.

There are plenty of other additions, including huge space freighters that you can buy and customise, and cargo can be stacked to give you more storage capacity.

We’ll certainly be checking out the updated edition. Hopefully, it’ll bring back plenty of other lost NMS players too.

Hospital to get first dedicated 3D tissue-printing facility

You still can’t get a 3D-printed liver transplant made from your own cells, but an Australian hospital is trying to push the tech into the mainstream. The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane is building a dedicated “biofabrication” space where doctors and researchers can develop tech to model and print cartilage, bone and other human tissue. “It will be the first time a biomanufacturing institute will be co-located with a high-level hospital,” said Australian Minister of Health Cameron Dick.

The facility will occupy two floors of the hospital and use state of the art tissue manufacturing tech in surgery procedures. “Our vision for healthcare is that the biofabrication institute will pave the way for 3D printers to sit in operating theaters, ready to print tissue as needed, in our hospitals of the future,” Dick said.

It’s still early days for 3D tissue and medical implant printing, but QUT is one of the facilities pushing the limits, along with Wake Forest, Harvard University and others. Researchers have grown (but not 3D printed) bladders from patients’ own cells and successfully transplanted them, and attached human ear prostheses made (in part) from living tissue. Building more complex organs (like highly sought kidneys) has proven a challenge, however, because it’s hard to supply blood and keep them alive for longer than a few months.

Biofabrication operating room of the future (QUT)

Biofabrication shows the most promise for less complex body parts like cartilage and bone. “A lot of the implants we are developing, we can implant into a patient and as the tissue grows back, it is not rejected, the scaffold will reabsorb over time and the tissue will grow even more and eventually the implant is gone,” says Associate Professor Mia Woodruff. “We don’t always have to use metallic implants any more, we can develop really high-spec composite materials that dissolve as the tissue heals.”

However, the big prize would be the ability to 3D print a rejection-proof organ built from a patients’ own cells. “We are not going to be able to 3D print an organ tomorrow but what we are able to do is bring together the researchers, the clinicians, the patients, the engineers, the intellect and industry partners to be able for us to develop new technology to the level where it can be translated into the clinic,” Woodruff says.

Via: Reddit

Source: QUT

Test can show if the speed of light has changed

Modern science assumes that the speed of light has always been the same. Researchers have suggested that this seeming constant might have changed over time, however, and they now have a way to find out whether or not that’s true. Professors João Magueijo and Niayesh Afshordi have developed a prediction that should test for changes in light speed. They’ve given the fluctuations in density the early universe, detectable through cosmic background radiation, an exact spectral index number based on the theory that light was much faster in the first seconds following the Big Bang (0.96478, if you’re curious). If future measurements of the index line up with this number, they’ll support the notion that light speed has shifted.

It’s not as bold a prediction as you might think. Existing estimates have the spectral index at 0.968, which is just close enough that the scientists could be right if there’s wiggle room. The challenge, of course, is collecting data with high enough accuracy that you can make a definitive call. There’s no guarantee that this will happen any time soon.

If the variable light speed concept is ever proven right, though, it would change our understanding of how the universe expanded. Right now, the constant speed theory doesn’t give enough time for light to have traveled to where it is in the cosmos, evening out the universe’s energy. Super-fast light would fill in that gap and force scientists to rethink early existence. And if light has always traveled at the same speed, that both rules out the variability theory lends weight to an existing inflation concept where the universe briefly evened out before expanding rapidly. Either way, science wins.

Via: ScienceDaily

Source: Imperial College London, APS Physics

Tesla’s upgraded Autopilot will start rolling out mid-December

Should you happen to be one of the first drivers to buy a Model S or Model X with Enhanced Autopilot support, you’re probably wondering when you’ll actually start getting those features. Well, the mystery’s over. Elon Musk informs a new Model S owner that the Enhanced Autopilot update should start rolling out in “about three weeks” (as of November 26th), or sometime in mid-December. That’s a nice holiday gift, we’d say. However, don’t expect to receive everything that Tesla promised right off the bat.

As referenced during the self-driving reveal, the plan is to inch toward the late 2017 goal of full autonomy through incremental “monthly releases.” Features like an upgraded Autosteer (using the newer cars’ extra cameras) and Smart Summon (which isn’t limited to moving the car in a straight line) are on the way… you may just have to wait months to see them. That isn’t much comfort if you just spent a small fortune on a Tesla and want to show it off, but your patience will hopefully be rewarded.

@edwardsanchez about three weeks and it will get rolled out incrementally in monthly releases

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 27, 2016

Via: Electrek

Source: Elon Musk (Twitter)

San Francisco transit stations fall victim to a hack

San Franciscans just got an all-too-real demonstration of what it’s like when hackers attack urban infrastructure. The city’s Municipal Transportation Agency has confirmed that the Muni station computer system was hacked, leading officials to open fare gates, shut down ticket kiosks and otherwise make rides free on November 26th. Trains themselves were unaffected, and payments resumed on the morning of the 27th. It’s not certain exactly who was responsible (besides “Andy Saolis,” likely a pseudonym), but Hoodline understands that the intruders were using ransomware to hold the city hostage until it paid the equivalent of $73,000 in bitcoin. Screens at terminals said “you hacked, ALL data encrypted” and pointed the city to a Russian email address to arrange payment.

Tipsters speaking to CBS claim that the hack had been around for “days,” and that it affected employees. Hoodline expands on this and claims that the attack compromised database servers, email, training and even payroll systems. “Only” a quarter of SFMTA’s computers (2,112 of 8,656) fell victim, but that was enough to prompt the emergency shutdown. The agency might not have had to give into the ransom demands, at any rate. While officials haven’t confirmed anything, Hoodline understands that the backup servers were likely safe. The biggest concern is that Muni may have lost days’ worth of information if there was no recent backup.

It’s possible that the attackers got in through a phishing scheme, where an employee was tricked into installing rogue code through deceptive email or websites, but that’s not certain at this early stage.

The evidence suggests this is more likely to be a classic instance of cybercrime instead of a state-sponsored act. After all, San Francisco’s train station is a tempting target with both money and a strong incentive to recover its systems as quickly as possible. Whoever’s responsible, the act is a reminder that a lot of America’s critical infrastructure remains vulnerable. It also cuts a little too close to the bone for gamers — Ubisoft just released Watch Dogs 2, where activist hackers exploit San Francisco’s information grid to further their (considerably nobler) causes. Watch Dogs’ tendency to eerily mirror reality remains intact.

Source: CBS, SFGate, Hoodline

German draft law would limit your data privacy rights

Germany has generally been protective of privacy as of late, but it might take a step backward. The country’s union for data protection has revealed that an interior ministry draft law would seriously curtail data privacy rights. You wouldn’t have the right to know what data people are collecting about you if that disclosure “disadvantages the well-being” of Germany, or will “seriously endanger” business activities. It would also greenlight facial recognition software for video surveillance, and prevent data protection commissioners from either sanctioning security agencies for breaches or conducting follow-up checks when legal or medical information leaks.

According to the union, the law would be hypocritical. While it’s supposed to help implement tougher European Union privacy rules that take effect in 2018, it would actually break EU law and implement “unconstitutional” regulations. National security concerns and trade secrets aren’t worth giving up valuable rights, the union argues.

The good news? This is a draft, and the Federal Data Protection Commissioner’s office is talking to the administration about at least some concerns. However, there’s no guarantees that any revisions will bring the law into line with what privacy advocates want. Germans who object may have to either resign themselves to the changes or fight the law once it’s implemented.

Via: Deutsche Welle

Source: DVD (PDF, translated)