Amazon denies police request for Echo voice recordings in murder case

How secure are your Echo recordings? For now, Amazon is keeping them protected.

According to a report from The Information, police in Bentonville, Arkansas recently issued a warrant for Amazon to release recordings from the Echo owned by a man set to go on trial for first-degree murder. Amazon declined to give Echo-related recordings to the authorities, but did offer some account details and purchase history related to the account — which in some ways could prove to be more valuable.

Police indicated that they were able to take some data from the Echo locally, but did not confirm what all was able to be retrieved. Considering that the Echo relies on a constant internet connection to provide its smarts, chances are the real treasure trove would only lie on Amazon’s servers. Beyond that, the Echo is unlikely to have recorded anything incriminating, as aside from some occasional miscues it is only recording once it hears the trigger words of “Amazon,” “Alexa” or “Echo” and within relatively close proximity.

Data from other smart home devices could be far more interesting than Echo recordings.

Other types of data, like that apparently retrieved from the suspect’s various IoT devices, could be far more interesting to the case if they are permitted to be used. Smart plugs, light bulbs, automated home devices and of course cameras could prove to be difference makers in this case (and far beyond). For example, in this particular case, a smart water meter showed incredibly high water usage prior to the time the victim was found dead at the home.

When it comes to law enforcement attempting to build the strongest case, it isn’t surprising that the local authorities would do everything possible to obtain evidence. Issuing warrants for all data collected by smart home devices is in no way surprising — the only question is whether or not these companies can be (or will be) compelled to hand it over, and if the courts eventually find it legal and admissible in court.

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So, what Android stuff did you get for Christmas?

Share the wealth, would ya?

By now, the wrapping is balled up and in the garbage, and family is on their way back home (still stuck in traffic, if Google Maps is correct), and you’re sitting with some cool new stuff.

Android or not, we want to know: What did you get?

Anecdotally, it seems like mobile VR — Samsung Gear VR and Google Daydream alike — was the hit of the season, with plenty of people reporting new add-ons to go with their shiny new phones.

Amazon’s Echo was also a winner — the company continues to be backordered — along with Fitbits and other fitness-focused wearables.

So, good? Bad? Regifting? Let us know what you got, and we’ll share ours, too!

T-Mobile begins issuing its Note 7-killing update

The end is here.

T-Mobile has begun administering the drug that will prove fatal to the twice-recalled Note 7, an update that will eventually roll out to all remaining units (some 100,000) in the U.S. The update, which will be required, adds a persistent notification to the Note 7. It also prevents it from being charged, and limits its connectivity to the network. In other words, the update kills the Note 7.

AT&T, Sprint and, reluctantly, Verizon, have all agreed to begin issuing the same update starting January 5. The build number is N930TUVU2APL2 and, of course, it’s not Nougat. Come on, people.

More: Galaxy Note 7 recall, fires and dumpsters

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• Galaxy Note 7 fires, recall and cancellation: Everything you need to know
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New 5-inch iPhone 7S might feature a vertical dual-lens camera

At least one version of the three different iPhone models due in 2017 might sport a standard body size – as well as dual lenses.

If every iPhone 7S/8 report floating around were true, we can expect several iPhone models next year. And at least one of them could blow our minds with an OLED screen and more. Alas, as the new year draws nearer, the rumour mill is narrowing its focus. The latest round of news has indicated Apple will introduce three iPhone 7S or iPhone 8 models in 2017, with one of them being a 5-incher that sits between the standard and Plus models.

SlashGear/Mac Otakara

The interesting thing about this upcoming handset is that it doesn’t appear to be the mythical iPhone 8 with all those bells and whistles. Instead, it’ll have a vertically arranged dual-lens camera. And that’s about it. This middle-child smartphone will pack all the same features as its siblings; however, due to its smaller body, it’ll must offer those fancy dual lenses in a different layout than what the larger iPhone Plus model can manage.

If this report (via Mac Otakara) is true, the next iPhones will be an incremental update to Apple’s phone lineup, rather than an overhaul. That means iPhone 7S will likely be the new iPhones’ name, as the report suggested, and not iPhone 8.

Check out Pocket-lint’s round-up for a collection of other rumours we’ve heard.

• Apple iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus: What’s the story so far?

LG made a levitating Bluetooth speaker and will show it off at CES

If Amazon Echo and Google Home are any indication, speakers are a hot commodity right now.

So, it makes since that LG would jump on board, but instead of loading its Bluetooth speaker with smart features such as a voice-activated assistant, the company has thrown levitation into the mix. Seriously. To be clear, this isn’t the first levitating speaker to hit the market. Still, it’s not exactly common to see one – let alone from a big-named electronics manufacturer like LG.

LG’s speaker is a minimalist’s dream: compact, white, sleek, futuristic. The speaker itself offers 360-degree sound and a 10-hour battery life. It hovers above a round base called the “Levitation Station”, which features electromagnets to create the floating. The base also houses a subwoofer. When the floating speaker runs of juice, it returns to the base station to charge.

Because this is a Bluetooth speaker, you can stream tunes to it from any connected Bluetooth device, including your smartphones and tablets. All you have to do is pair the gadgets, then queue up some tunes on Spotify or Apple Music or whatever, and stream to the speaker. It’s cool. It’s fancy. But we’d probably like LG’s Levitating Portable Speaker even more if it offer Amazon’s Alexa voice service, or something similar.

• Amazon Echo vs Amazon Tap vs Amazon Echo Dot

LG hasn’t mentioned pricing yet, though we suspect it’ll be in the $150 to $200 range or more. We’ll know for sure in January, when LG debuts this upcoming speaker at the CES 2017 trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Samsung’s Galaxy S8 might pack – wait for it – a whopping 8GB of RAM

Samsung need the Galaxy S8 to be a hit.

The company is likely doubling down, trying to make its next flagship a must-have device – or at least something that will make us forget all about that Galaxy Note 7 fiasco. And the latest Galaxy S8 rumours have indicated Samsung is on the right path. For instance, Ice Universe (via a report by MySmartPrice), a well-known tipster for Samsung phones, has claimed the Galaxy S8 will feature 8GB of RAM.

As PocketNow noted, that amount of RAM would make the Galaxy S8 the world’s first 8GB RAM phone. Keep in mind 6GB of RAM with 256GB of storage has been rumoured in the past. Ice Universe also suggested the phone could come with the Samsung’s UFS 2.1 flash storage, rather than UFS 2.0, meaning the Universal Flash Storage, which will probably have a 256GB max capacity, should seem fast.

Now, that’s not the only interest rumour circulating right now: Another leak has made it seem like Samsung will launch a Galaxy S8 Plus model with a 6-inch Super AMOLED display. According to a report by a South Korean publication (via 9to5Google), the bigger display size might not make the device look much bigger, as Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus could feature very thin bezels.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus smartphone is said to launch alongside the 5-inch Galaxy S8 model. It’s unclear if this phone will exclusively get 8GB of RAM or if all new Galaxy S8 models will feature that amount of RAM.

A South Korean robotics company just built a real Gundam

We won’t have to wait much longer for our Robotech future. South Korean robotics manufacturer Hankook Mirae Technology debuted its first prototype piloted mech over the weekend. Say hello to the Method-2.

It stands 13-feet tall, weighs 1.3 tons and wields a pair of 286-pound, motion-tracking metal arms. “Our robot is the world’s first manned bipedal robot and is built to work in extreme hazardous areas where humans cannot go (unprotected),” company chairman, Yang Jin-Ho, said in a prepared statement. The company has spent upwards of $200 million since 2014 to develop the mech with the help of Hollywood SFX designer, Vitaly Bulgarov, whose credits include Transformers, Robocop and Terminator.

The Method-2 itself likely won’t be employed in the field anytime soon. Instead, the giant machine will serve as a testbed for emerging mech technologies. Future iterations, however, could find use in everything from construction and cargo loading to military and SAR operations.

Source: PhysOrg

Samsung’s 2017 TVs will keep track of your favorite sports teams

CES is nothing if not a show about TVs — every year, Samsung, Sony, LG and many more parade out incremental upgrades meant to get us to open our wallets and upgrade our screens. In advance of next week’s show, Samsung is announcing a piece of its strategy for the year: the company is planning three “Smart TV services” to help people find the all-important content they want to watch. The creatively-named services are “Sports,” “Music” and “TV Plus” — you can probably guess what types of content you’ll find in each.

As you might expect, each app is meant to aggregate various types of video and make it easier to find. The Sports app lets you set your favorite teams and receive updates when they’re playing. You can get score updates on your TV, but it’ll also point you to the various channels that’ll let you tune in without having to flip all around your cable box. A home screen will keep track of all the teams you’re interested in and show you scores or where to tune in and catch the game.

The music service offers similar aggregation features: you can plug into a variety of streaming music services (including Spotify, iHeartRadio, Napster, Deezer, Sirius XM and Vevo) and search for songs any time. Oddly, it also sounds like the service has some Shazam-type features, letting you identify songs being played on live TV.

The last service, TV Plus, has actually already been out for much of 2016 — it’s an aggregator that uses a “smart electronic program guide” to point people to various shows and movies, regardless of what service they’re on. Plenty of other companies are doing this, with Apple recently launching a unified TV guide app for the Apple TV and iOS devices, so it’s natural Samsung have its own version of this. The update to TV Plus that’s coming at CES is an integration with FandangoNow, a service that offers 40,000 movies and shows.

What Samsung hasn’t yet said is if these new apps are coming to older TVs or if they’ll only be available on new sets. It’s just about a week until the company’s big CES press conference, though, so we should find out more soon.

Source: Samsung

Republicans propose banning livestreams on the House floor

Remember when House Democrats staged a sit-in to insist on a vote for gun control legislation, and relied on livestreams and social networks to keep their message alive when TV cameras weren’t running? Republicans weren’t happy about that… and now, they’re hoping to prevent a similar protest from happening again. The party has proposed measures that would fine members of Congress up to $2,500 ($500 for the first offense) if they record or livestream images and audio on the House floor. According to Paul Ryan spokeswoman Ashlee Strong, it’s meant to “ensure that order and decorum are preserved” so that politicians can “do the people’s work.”

The measure won’t be retroactive. Democrats who participated in the sit-in won’t get a rude surprise, then. It will, however, cut directly into any offender’s net salary.

While it’s true that the protest was largely symbolic (not to mention ineffective) in a Republican-controlled House, it’s also clear that there’s significant spin going on here. A ban on livestreams and social photos conveniently shuts down attempts to draw attention to issues that might otherwise be swept under the rug. Also, it’s not clear that this will be much of a deterrent when the average Representative is paid $174,000 per year. House members that participated in the sit-in are already vowing that the threat of fines won’t stop them in the future. In that regard, the proposal is more a shot across the bow than anything — it’s a bid to discourage dissent before Republicans assume greater control of the US government in 2017.

Via: Variety

Source: NBC News

‘Frog Fractions 2’ found buried inside a game about fairies

Frog Fractions 2 is out now, but be warned that it’s not a typical game. This is largely because its predecessor, Frog Fractions, was not a typical game, and series creator Jim Crawford is not a typical developer.

When Frog Fractions came out in 2013, it appeared to be a cute Flash title that taught kids math tricks through the guise of bug-snatching frogs. However, play past the first few levels and things get strange: After a trip to Bug Mars on the back of a dragon and a series of random adventures, the game ends with players managing a company that produces bug pornography. The whole thing takes about half an hour to complete and it definitely doesn’t teach kids any useful math skills.

When Crawford revealed the Kickstarter campaign for Frog Fractions 2 in 2014, he vowed to eschew traditional marketing schemes and keep the game a mystery during development.

“Most Kickstarters are very detailed about what you’re paying for, but the nature of this one is that you’re paying for a surprise,” he said at the time.

Since then, Crawford and a crack team of developers have been running at least two different augmented-reality games leading up to the release of Frog Fractions 2. The ARGs themselves are complex and multi-layered, with the creators leaving hints in podcasts and comment sections, within Super Mario Maker levels, and inside of more than 24 other independent games, including Campo Santo’s Firewatch. Crawford and his team recently ran through the oral history of these ARGs on Polygon.

The end of the main ARG campaign involved some folks completing an escape room in Portland, finding a key and using it to activate a big red button that read, via a sticky note, “Launch FF2.” The intrepid hunters at Game Detectives noticed that the Steam title Glittermitten Grove received a huge update precisely when the button was pressed.

Turns out, that update was Frog Fractions 2. Yes, buried inside a completely separate game about fairies building and managing their forest abodes, published by Adult Swim Games.

There are two ways to access Frog Fractions 2 via Glittermitten Grove, according to Kotaku: Use fireworks to dig in the ground until you find a door that leads to the sequel, or actually play Glittermitten Grove until you find a door in the sky.

Crawford warned everyone about the mind games behind Frog Fractions 2 back in 2014, when he said the sequel would be “larger in scope than Frog Fractions, containing multiple levels of secrets that will take you many play sessions to discover.” At least he isn’t a liar.

Source: GameDetectives, Polygon