Nokia appears to be working on its own AI assistant

It seems that just about everyone wants to get into the AI assistant game. Nokia (the networking giant, not HMD Global’s brand) has applied for a trademark on “Viki,” a chat- and voice-based helper for smartphones and the web. Details are scarce — this is a trademark, not a patent — but there’s little doubt as to what it’s for. The question is, what will Nokia do with it?

Not surprisingly, the company isn’t revealing much. “Nokia registers trademarks from time to time,” a spokesperson tells us, “but we don’t comment on how, whether or when they may be used for Nokia products or services.” And it’s important to remember that companies sometimes register trademarks as safeguards. They may not intend to make a product, but they don’t want someone else taking their naming scheme.

You definitely can’t assume that an assistant will show up in Nokia-branded smartphones. HMD Global may have the Nokia name under its belt, but that doesn’t mean that it’s working in concert with the original Finnish company. If Viki ever reaches the public, it could just as easily be shopped around to any smartphone maker or internet service that wants an AI solution.

Via: GSMinfo.nl (translated), IBTimes

Source: EUIPO

Phil Schiller Says iPhone Was ‘Earth-Shattering’ Ten Years Ago and Remains ‘Unmatched’ Today

To commemorate the tenth anniversary of the iPhone, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller sat down with tech journalist Steven Levy for a wide-ranging interview about the smartphone’s past, present, and future.

The report first reflects upon the iPhone’s lack of support for third-party apps in its first year. The argument inside Apple was split between whether the iPhone should be a closed device like the iPod, or an open platform like the Mac, a discussion that Schiller said was ultimately “shut down” by then-CEO Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs shut down the discussion, Schiller recalls. “He said ‘We don’t have to keep debating this because we can’t have [an open system] right now. Maybe we’ll change our mind afterwards, or maybe we won’t, but for now there isn’t one so let’s envision this world where we solve the problem with great built-in apps and a way for developers to make web apps.”

Levy suggested that the iPhone’s great moment was when the App Store launched a year later, creating a world where for “every imaginable activity” there was “an app for that.” Schiller, perhaps unsurprisingly as Apple’s marketing chief, said that belief undermines how truly “earth-shattering” the iPhone was at the time.

“That undervalues how earth-shattering the iPhone was when it first came to market, and we all first got them and fell in love with them,” he says. “iPhone made the idea of a smartphone real. It really was a computer in your pocket. The idea of real internet, real web browser, Multi-Touch. There were so many things that are core to what is the smartphone today, that created a product that customers fell in love with, that then also demanded more stuff on them, more apps.”

Nowadays, some critics are wondering whether Apple is playing it safe as of late, arguing that recent iPhone models have only incremental improvements rather than revolutionary new features. But, again, Schiller downplayed this notion and said the changes in more recent iPhones are “sometimes even bigger now.”

“I actually think the leaps in the later versions are as big and sometimes even bigger now,” he says. “I think our expectations are changing more, not the leaps in the products. If you look through every version—from the original iPhone to the iPhone 3G to the 4 to the 4S, you see great changes all throughout. You see screen size change from three and a half inch to four inch to four point seven and five point five. You see cameras going through incredible change, from the first camera that couldn’t shoot video, to then having both a front and a backside camera, to now three cameras with the stuff we’re doing, and with live photos and 4K video.”

Schiller positioned the iPhone as a top smartphone. “The quality is unmatched. The ease of use is still unmatched. The integration of hardware software is unmatched. We’re not about the cheapest, we’re not about the most, we’re about the best.”

In a press release yesterday, Schiller said Apple is “just getting started” with the iPhone, while CEO Tim Cook promised “the best is yet to come.” Building upon those comments, Schiller told Levy that he hopes in 50 years, people will indeed look back and realize how much was yet to come.

Schiller hopes that 50 years people will look back at this point and say, “Wow, they didn’t realize how much was to come — in fact, others missed it because they were busy running around looking for other things. Everyone has their opinions at this point, but it could be that we’re only in the first minutes of the first quarter of the game,” he says. “I believe this product is so great that it has many years of innovation ahead.”

Levy, however, went on to question “whether a pocket-sized device like the iPhone will still be as relevant decades hence,” particularly as “a lot of observers have been saying we are at the start of the era of the conversational interface.”

At CES last week, for example, a number of reputable publications said Amazon’s Alexa platform “stole the show” or offered similar accolades, after companies showed off everything from new cars and robots to fridges and laundry machines integrated with the voice-controlled assistant, which launched in late 2014.

Apple itself had an early lead in this artificial intelligence space when it debuted Siri on the iPhone 4s in 2011.

Schiller opined that “the best intelligent assistant is the one that’s with you all the time,” such as the iPhone. Schiller added that “people are forgetting the value and importance of the display,” which he said is “not going to go away.”

“I’m so glad the team years ago set out to create Siri — I think we do more with that conversational interface that anyone else. Personally, I still think the best intelligent assistant is the one that’s with you all the time. Having my iPhone with me as the thing I speak to is better than something stuck in my kitchen or on a wall somewhere.”

“People are forgetting the value and importance of the display,” he says. “Some of the greatest innovations on iPhone over the last ten years have been in display. Displays are not going to go away. We still like to take pictures and we need to look at them, and a disembodied voice is not going to show me what the picture is.”

Full-Length Article: Phil Schiller on iPhone’s Launch, How It Changed Apple, and Why It Will Keep Going for 50 Years

Tag: Phil Schiller
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WeChat Launches Cloud-Based, iMessage App Store-Like ‘Mini Program’

Popular Chinese mobile app company WeChat [Direct Link] congratulated Apple on ten years of the iPhone earlier this morning, with founder Allan Zhang posting photos online from the iPhone’s unveiling in January 2007.

Simultaneously, WeChat parent company Tencent Holdings launched a suite of cloud-based smartphone apps that analysts believe suggests WeChat intends to “play a leading role in the next decade” of the smartphone software business (via The Wall Street Journal).

The new platform is called “Mini Program” and is made up of a collection of apps, all stored in the cloud, that users can access without downloading or requiring storage space on their smartphone. Although seemingly a direct counterpart to the iOS App Store and Google Play Store, a Tencent spokeswoman speaking with The Wall Street Journal said that the company “maintained regular dialogue with Apple” throughout the development of Mini Program. WeChat also deliberately avoids calling it an “app store.”

The company has taken care not to describe Mini Program as an app store, saying it doesn’t have a central location to distribute applications. Apple doesn’t allow third-party app stores in its iOS App Store. Tencent also dropped plans to include the word “app” in its name, calling the features “programs” instead.

“Apple won’t let us call it App Accounts, which might turn out to be a good thing,” Tencent Chairman Pony Ma wrote on his WeChat account in September, as Mini Program began beta testing.

Although Mini Program provides experiences and programs similar to iOS apps, none are located in a “central location,” akin to the actual App Store app on iPhone and iPad. Programs are instead discoverable through third-party means, like scanning a QR code or finding a new program in a search result. The programs are said to provide small but useful functionalities, similar to the simplified apps on the iMessage App Store.

WeChat itself began as a chat app in China and has slowly evolved into “a digital Swiss Army Knife,” including extra features that let users stay up-to-date on the news, pay bills, check their bank accounts, buy tickets to the movies, and more. Mini Program is yet another feature addition to the popular app, but analysts believe it will take a while for both developers and users to get the full use of the programs.

Industry experts say the first mini-programs are less sophisticated than most conventional apps, with fewer features and functions. “For heavy users, the experience on apps is still better so I don’t think this would threaten the status of app stores,” said Zhu Xiaohua, product supervisor of online question-and-answer platform Fenda.

“Mini Program is not a simple substitute,” said Hong Bo, a Beijing-based tech analyst. “It will take a fairly long term for developers and users to get used to it.”

For Apple, the iOS App Store continues to account for a large portion of the company’s revenue, with $240 million in sales on New Year’s Day 2017 — the “busiest day ever” for the App Store. In total for 2016, App Store developers made $20 billion, which the company said was up 40 percent from 2015. The iMessage App Store is also growing, with 21,000 apps now available for users to download, up from 1,600 last September.

Tags: China, WeChat
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What is Dolby Vision? Dolby’s very own HDR TV tech explained

The television world is never short of technical terms and abbreviations, and keeping up with them all and understanding what they all do can be a nightmare. The biggest TV trend to come out of the past few years is High Dynamic Range, or HDR. We’ve already covered exactly what that is in a separate article, but just to confuse things, sound pioneers Dolby have their own version called Dolby Vision.

But what exactly is Dolby Vision, how does it differ to HDR10, what TVs support it and what content is there to watch? Allow us to explain all…

What is Dolby Vision?

Dolby Vision, in basic terms, is an end-to-end production process, from the content creation right through to mastering and then you viewing it at home. Because it’s an end-to-end process, the metadata in each frame can be dictated by Dolby and then compatible equipment can read it and understand it exactly how it was meant to be. It means you’ll get the best possible viewing experience. HDR10 on the other hand relies on the HDR TV itself to determine how to interpret the metadata and display it.

• What is HDR, what TVs support it and what content can I watch?

The main difference between Dolby Vision and HDR10 though, is the colour depth and brightness the content and equipment is capable of achieving. Dolby Vision content is mastered in up to 12-bit colour depth, compared to 10-bit of HDR10 (which is where HDR10 gets its name from). You may be wondering, what difference could 12-bit over 10-bit possibly make? Well, 12-bit colour depth gives access to over 68 billion colours, compared to just 1 billion with 10-bit. This means the colours you see from Dolby Vision films and on compatible TVs are going to be far more accurate and as the director intended.

Brightness is another key factor in determining the success of HDR content. The Ultra HD Premium specification says HDR TVs must reach a minimum of 1,000 nits peak brightness, which many of the current crop of HDR TVs can do. We did see new TVs from all the major manufacturers at CES 2017 that can achieve 1,500 to 2,000 nits, but Dolby Vision content is mastered for 10,000 nits peak brightness. But at the moment, no TV can support this, so content is actually mastered to around 4,000 nits. However it means Dolby Vision is very well future-proofed, because the potential to go even brighter is already there for when the displays can support it.

• What is Ultra HD Premium and why does it matter? The 4K HDR badge explained 

What TVs support Dolby Vision?

Pocket-lint

In order to watch Dolby Vision content, you need to have the right equipment. The benefit of Dolby Vision TVs is that they can support HDR10 as well, but HDR10 TVs can’t do Dolby Vision, so if you want the best of both worlds, Dolby Vision is the way to go. Dolby Vision equipment has dedicated chips inside which read the metadata and reproduce the images exactly how they were made.

• LG Signature OLED W7 preview: 2.5mm thin wall-mounted “wallpaper” TV is simply stunning

LG was initially the only TV manufacturer to support Dolby Vision, with its 2016 OLED lineup: B6, C6, E6 and G6, all offering compatibility. Other manufacturers have clearly realised the potential of Dolby Vision and at CES 2017, we saw a lot more compatible equipment announced.

LG announced its 2017 lineup of OLED TVs: B7, C7, E7 and G7, along with the W7, a 2.57mm thick TV that sticks to the wall via magnets.

The company also introduced a new range of Super UHD TVs that use Nano Cell technology – another new technology for 2017 – that support Dolby Vision, alongside HDR10, Hybrid Log Gamma and Advanced HDR by Technicolor.

• What is Hybrid Log Gamma and why should you care?

LG also had a world’s first for the show in the form of the world’s first Ultra HD Blu-ray to support Dolby Vision in the form of the UP970, which is handy, because the first wave of Dolby Vision 4K Blu-ray discs from major Hollywood studios including Lionsgate, Universal Pictures and Warner Brothers should arrive in the first half of 2017.

Sony also jumped on the Dolby Vision train with the A1 OLED TV, a gorgeous slither of TV that has the potential to really bring Sony back into the TV game. It isn’t just the company’s new OLED TV that supports Dolby Vision, as its new XE94 and XE93 TV series can comfortably handle it too.

Interestingly, even though Sony’s new TVs support Dolby Vision, it’s newly announced 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player, the UBP-X800, doesn’t support it and because the tech relies on a dedicated chip, it won’t be able to be updated by a firmware update.

• CES 2017: All the announcements that matter
• Best TVs of CES 2017: Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, LG OLED and more

What Dolby Vision content can I watch?

Pocket-lint

We’ve already mentioned how Dolby Vision Blu-ray discs are coming this year, but what if you don’t want to invest in physical media, what are your options? Thankfully, Netflix and Amazon both have a range of Dolby Vision content available to stream. However Amazon’s Dolby Vision content is only supported in the US for now.

Netflix has a decent selection of Dolby Vision content in the UK, it includes:

• Daredevil
• Marco Polo
• The Ridiculous 6
• The Do Over
• Chef’s Table France
• The OA
• Luke Cage
• Jessica Jones

You’ll be able to tell if a TV show or movie supports Dolby Vision from a tag that appears next to the star rating. 

• Netflix review: The leading light in home entertainment

In the US, Amazon will let you watch the second season of Bosch in Dolby Vision, as well as a selection of films from Sony, including The Smurfs 2, Men In Black 3, Fury and Salt. Currently, Amazon states on its website that only LG’s TV’s that support it for now, presumably because of the app. Hopefully that will be updated to include Sony’s new TVs in due course.

• Amazon Video review: Hitting the Prime time
• How to watch 4K Ultra HD content on TV and online

You can follow all the latest news and reviews in the television world by heading to our dedicated hub page.

Asus ZenFone 3 Zoom preview: The mid-ranger cameraphone

Asus went after mixed reality geeks with the ZenFone AR, but with the  Zenfone 3 Zoom, it’s targeting photographers.

All the major smartphones from this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas had multiple camera lenses, including the ZenFone 3 Zoom, which comes equipped with two 12-megapixel camera lenses to deliver a blurred “bokeh” effect as well as optical zoom. 

There are several phones in the ZenFone 3 range, such as the Max and Laser. The ZenFone 3 Zoom stands out because of its iPhone 7 Plus-like design and impressive camera specifications. There are horizontally mounted dual cameras with 12-megapixel sensors, both of which are made by Sony. While one offers a f/1.7 aperture, the other has a 2.3x optical zoom, and both have Asus’ SuperPixel technology.

Asus claims the technology gives the cameras two-and-a-half times better light sensitivity than the iPhone 7 Plus, though we couldn’t test that during our demo because the show floor was well lit. However, we played around with the camera interface, which displays all sorts of manual controls – from shutter speed to white-balance settings. The phone also offers digital zoom, so you can get up to 12x zoom. 

You can tap a button to quickly zoom in (unfortunately, there’s no visual indication when switching from optical to digital). You can also shoot in RAW, record 4K videos, and manually select lenses (including using the two lenses together to produce a blurred background, which Asus calls Portrait mode, just like Apple does). Other camera specs include laser autofocus and optical image stabilization.

As for the front-facing camera, it’s a 13-megapixel sensor. The Zenfone 3 Zoom is definitely trying to be a cameraphone. And thanks to a 5,000mAh battery, it should power the longest of selfie sessions. Asus said it can even do 42 days standby. Amazingly, despite the massive cell, the phone is only 8mm thick, so you’ll likely have no problem touting this thing around to all your shoots.

Asus loaded the ZenFone 3 Zoom with a 5.5-inch AMOLED screen (1,920 x 1,080-pixel resolution), Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor, 4GB of RAM, and Android 6.0 with its own ZenUI over the top. We think the added software really takes away from the Android experience, so don’t expect the phone to properly contend with Google Pixel or any of the newer Nexus devices running the latest, purest version of Android. 

First Impressions

Overall, the Zenfone 3 Zoom is a mid-range phone with some compelling camera specs and a large battery. We really need to spend more time with it before we can say whether it can capture better photos than competing handsets, and it would be good to know how much the thing costs before giving it two thumbs up. Asus has said it is coming in February, but it’s staying quiet on price and availability. 

Keep in mind most mid-rangers often go for less than $400.

The Trump Archive is collecting everything he’s said on video

Remember that time US President-elect Donald Trump said one thing years or weeks ago, then reversed his position? If your answer is “which of the many, many examples,” you’ve been paying attention — and now you have a handy database full of speeches, debates, interviews and other broadcasts to trace his evolving opinions. The Trump Archive is live and has over 780 video clips amounting to over 520 hours of footage to date, with more on the way.

The repository is a project by the otherwise neutral Internet Archive, known mostly for its Wayback Machine that allows users to peer backward to the early days of the world wide web via cached pages. The Trump Archive builds on the organization’s experience making the Political Ad TV Archive they started in 2014. Likewise, the new collection’s laser-focus on the incoming Commander-In-Chief hopes to help reporters, researchers and the general public fact-check old Trump statements from as far back as December 2009 with new ones, the Television Archive’s managing editor Nancy Watzman said in a blog post.

But there’s another reason for uploading the archive beyond Trump’s upcoming inauguration, Watzman somberly reminds us: Things posted or broadcast on the Internet aren’t inherently saved forever.

“Reporters and the public may take it for granted that a news story or a piece of broadcast video is only a google search away, but as newspapers, companies, and organizations fail and change, often vital information is lost. The web is far more fragile than is generally understood,” said Watzman.

Via: VentureBeat

Source: Internet Archive blog

Gaming’s representation problems and where we go from here

Games are now big business and influential media in their own right. So what do video games tell us about how we see ourselves? Anita Sarkeesian from Feminist Frequency joined me on the Engadget stage to discuss games as popular culture, where we are now and the challenges facing better representation in the games that we all love. As our guest puts it: “The media works to reinforce and reflect society, for better and worse.”

“Our major tagline is: “be critical of the media you love”… but I came to this as a fan, as someone that loves games. I want to be better for everyone and much more inclusive.”

Our conversation touches on the harassment that female gaming critics have received over the last few years, games that aren’t properly representing the world we live in and the responsibilities of developers and publishers. As Sarkeesian puts it: “The games they create are not in a vacuum,” adding that the stories that games tell do have an impact. “We need to look to the games publishers: and why didn’t these companies stand up to harassment campaigns from their users, from people that are playing these games.”

Report: FBI arrests Volkswagen executive over Dieselgate

The first Volkswagen executive has been arrested in the “Dieselgate” affair, reports the New York Times. The FBI charged former regulatory compliance chief Oliver Schmidt with conspiracy to defraud the United States, said unnamed law enforcement and company insiders. Schmidt reportedly gave false technical explanations for high emissions levels discovered during 2014 tests and only acknowledged the existence of software “defeat devices” once the scandal broke last September.

Volkswagen eventually confessed to installing pollution-cheating devices on 11 million vehicles. The software sensed when the 2.0- and 3.0-liter cars were being tested by the EPA and activated pollution systems at the expense of power. It disabled the controls during real-world conditions to give vehicles more performance, however, causing them to emit up to 35 times the legal level of nitrogen oxide. That gas is known to cause respiratory problems and kills up to 30,000 people per year in the UK alone.

The company agreed to settle federal and state lawsuits for $14.7 billion, including $2.7 billion toward an EPA fund to clean up the damaged caused by the polluting cars. Regulators recently agreed to VW’s plan to fix 70,000 2015-and-later 2.0-liter models, though buyers also can also sell them back to Volkswagen for the full retail price.

[Audi’s] V6 has exactly the same issue [as Volkswagen diesels], but not public yet. They have not been caught.

In a July press conference, NY state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said the company only admitted the scam “when they knew the regulators had the goods on them.” To illustrate the point, he showed an email sent from Oliver Schmidt to a VW spokesperson that read, “[Audi’s] V6 has exactly the same issue [as Volkswagen diesels], but not public yet. They have not been caught.” That, Schneiderman said, shows that, “these actions highlight how stubborn and unrepentant the culture at Volkswagen is that gave rise to the systematic cheating and deception described in this complaint.”

Volkswagen would not confirm the arrest, telling the NYT that while it’s cooperating with law enforcement, “it would not be appropriate to comment on any ongoing investigations or to discuss personnel matters.” Volkswagen engineer James Liang pleaded guilty to similar charges last September, but if the report is accurate, Schmidt would be the biggest name charged in the scandal so far.

Source: NYT

Foxconn Taking Advantage of Sharp Acquisition With OLED Production Line Set for Upcoming iPhones

Sharp is gearing up to help create OLED displays for the iPhone inside of Foxconn’s “iPhone City” plant in Zhengzhou, China, according to a new report by Nikkei (via DigiTimes). Foxconn acquired Sharp in 2016, and soon after reports emerged that Foxconn would use its newly acquired investment in Sharp to become a major OLED supplier for Apple.

Today’s report points toward the OLED displays being manufactured for iPhone models further down the line than the upcoming 2017 model. Production on the Sharp line in the Foxconn plant is believed to begin “sometime in 2019,” with around $864 million being spent on OLED production specifically for upcoming iPhones.

Sharp plans to invest JPY100 billion (US$864 million) to set up an OLED production line at Foxconn Electronics’ factory in Zhengzhou City, northern China, with production to begin in 2019, according to Japan-based Nikkei.

As Foxconn produces iPhones at the factory, the OLED capacity is believed to be specifically for supplying OLED panels for upcoming iPhone models.

According to recent rumors, Apple will launch at least one iPhone model with an OLED screen in 2017. From there, the actual design of the OLED screen has been conflicting, including reports that the screen will wrap around the edges of the device, or potentially a more traditional screen that still eliminates the bezels but includes a stainless steel frame.

Because OLED displays are more difficult to produce in mass quantities, in comparison to LCD displays, Apple’s suppliers will be unable to meet the company’s production capacity for the 2017 iPhone. The strain on production is believed to be the major reason why Apple is considering an OLED display for only one 2017 iPhone model, likely to be the higher-cost version.

Tags: Foxconn, digitimes.com, Sharp
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HTC Ocean’s Touch UI gets another video leak, this time looking more official

The first leak we saw for the HTC Ocean was a concept for a new Sense Touch UI, detailing that you could operate the phone without buttons.

A new video, shared by @evleaks, gives us another look at a similar-looking Sense Touch UI, again accessed without using any buttons. 

There’s been no official word whether this is something that HTC is planning to launch or if it’s simply a concept, but the HTC branding at the end of this clip gives it a look that’s more official and the UI details shown on the screen display some HTC hallmarks – like the 10:08 time for example – as well as HTC Sense’s app icons.

Remember the HTC Ocean? (https://t.co/q5ghm3vQ8Z) pic.twitter.com/GtpqowETjM

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) January 8, 2017

The video doesn’t reveal much. The couple are drawn to the window of a Diptyque shop, and the exotically-fragranced candles obviously make them hungry. He pulls up local restaurant suggestions, but she remembers to grab a selfie of them outside the Diptyque store.

Quick menus are pulled up via a swipe on the side of the phone and it appears to work on both sides, letting you swipe up and down to scroll the list and tap to select the app.

@evleaks

What’s not clear from this video is whether this is using some form of touch sensor in the body of the phone, or if it’s using a curved display like the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge’s edge display feature. On the Samsung phone you can swipe in from the edge to access a number of services or shortcuts and Touch UI appears to be offering the same sort of access. 

You also can’t tell too much about the phone from this video. From the front there doesn’t appear to be a fingerprint scanner like the HTC 10, but there is a circle, which we’re assuming is a home button – perhaps with an embedded fingerprint scanner under the skin, a technology that’s already been demonstrated in Qualcomm’s Sense ID.

• HTC Ocean: What’s the story on HTC 11?

When they lift the phone for the selfie, things are a little more confusing, as the design looks a lot like the HTC One A9 with that centre-top rear camera. 

While this video looks cool and there are a lot of fragmented pieces of the HTC 2017 smartphone puzzle coming together, at the moment we have more questions than answers. 

Hopefully things will get clearer over the next couple of months, perhaps with a significant MWC 2017 launch, as well as a reveal scheduled for 12 January.