Apple found out what’s messing with the new MacBook Pro’s battery life

Apple knows what is causing the new MacBook Pro’s battery woes.

A couple weeks after Consumer Reports failed to recommend the latest MacBook Pro due to inconsistent battery life, Apple has announced that it worked with the publication to identify the problem: a bug in Safari. However, if you are experiencing poor battery life with your new machine, don’t assume you have the bug as well, because apparently, this is a problem mostly specific to Consumer Reports.

When Consumer Reports recently experienced low and wildly inconsistent battery results on the upgraded laptops during testing, Apple stood by its advertised battery claims. But it has now discovered the results were due to a software bug that occurs in Safari’s developer mode. It affected Consumer Reports’ test, which “uses a hidden Safari setting for developing web sites which turns off the browser cache”.

Apple noted most consumers don’t use this setting and therefore shouldn’t be impacted by the bug – nor should they be experiencing variable battery life in general. Still, after it finally found something to blame, Apple asked Consumer Reports to run the same test using normal user settings, and the publication told Apple that its MacBook Pro systems “consistently delivered the expected battery life”.

Nevertheless, Apple is releasing a software patch. The update, which will root out the Safari bug going forward, is available to those in the Apple Beta Software program. It will be also part of a broader update released in a few weeks. Consumer Reports said it will conduct another round of battery life tests with the update installed. It will also recommend the new MacBook Pros if the battery problem is resolved.

The publication explained that it had disabled caching in Safari for consistent testing across platforms. But keep in mind Pocket-lint also noticed reduced battery life of around 10 hours (compared to 12 for last year’s model), and we tested the machine with normal settings.

Facebook’s diversity push hampered by its own hiring practices

2016 was supposed to be the year that Facebook took the lead in positive hiring practices and show the rest of the industry what a truly diverse workforce looked like. To that end the company instituted a points-based incentive program the year prior, geared towards bringing on more hispanic, black and female workers. So far, it hasn’t worked out too well (no, Peter Thiel doesn’t count). And now it appears we finally know why.

The problem lies within the company’s own hiring practices. Specifically, it’s the company’s multi-tiered system, which vests a vast majority of the final hiring decision with a small group of executives. According to a Bloomberg report, despite a number of minority candidates making it through the rigorous interview process, the final decision always fell on engineering leaders who nearly exclusively picked white or Asian men. What’s more, these leaders relied heavily on conventional metrics like where the candidate went to college, where they had worked before and whether a current Facebook employee could vouch for them. This practice drastically limited the pool of potential employees to just those candidates that looked like, acted like, or grew up like the existing staff. It also hamstrung the recruiters’ ability to cultivate a more diverse workforce at the company.

“Facebook recruits from hundreds of schools and employers from all over the world, and most people hired at Facebook do not come through referrals from anyone at the company,” a company spokeswoman told Bloomberg. “Once people begin interviewing at Facebook, we seek to ensure that our hiring teams are diverse. Our interviewers and those making hiring decisions go through our managing bias course and we remain acutely focused on improving our ability to hire people with different backgrounds and perspectives.”

Despite Facebook’s boilerplate denial that its hiring system isn’t systematically rigged against minority candidates, the company’s incentive program clearly isn’t working. Over the past two years Facebook has hired barely any more women than it had in 2014 while black and hispanic hires were unchanged. Even though black and hispanic students constitute 6 percent and 8 percent of computer science graduates, respectively, though still represent just 3 percent and 1 percent of Facebook’s overall workforce.

The problem lies, as always, within Facebook’s upper echelons of management. This is the same issue that we saw with Facebook’s attempts to control the private sale of firearms through its site last year. Despite the overwhelming support from both the FB user community and rank and file engineers, the efforts were ultimately thwarted by a small cadre of managers led by director of engineering, Chuck Rossi. So until Facebook gets its management house in order and stops treating the multinational corporation’s boardroom like a college frat house, don’t expect much meaningful change on any of these issues.

Source: Bloomberg

How a smart breast pump won CES

When we previewed CES 2017 last week, none of our editors saw the Willow smart breast pump coming. But the humble device, which slides into a nursing mother’s bra and allows for hands-free pumping, won two of our Best of CES awards and generated press coverage across the internet. We were hardly the only outlet that declared the device one of the most innovative things we saw at the show.

It’s hard for a little-known company to make this kind of buzz at CES, where you have to compete against giants like Sony, Samsung, LG, Honda, Toyota and more of the world’s biggest companies. But once and a while the stars align and a gadget from an unknown startup breaks through the clutter. What made Willow such a hit this year?

We’ve seen devices like Willow become a phenomenon before. Hapifork dominated the CES 2013 conversation with the somewhat absurd premise of tracking how many bites you take, how long you chew and how long you eat. Unfortunately, using the Hapifork was a big letdown. Hapifork is far from the only oddball connected gadget that got a strange amount of attention: The creepy Mother connected home platform and ridiculous Belty smart belt are two more examples of bizarre gadgets that got more attention than they deserved, because that’s what happens at CES.

Willow was also likely helped by the fact that it’s a smart, connected device. While the promise of the Internet of Things has largely gone unrealized thus far, our readers seem to have a fascination with the weirder connected devices that we cover — particularly the devices that have no business being smart in the first place (like this toaster!). It’s not surprising, then, that a smart breast pump garnered so much attention — but the fact that it turned out to be actually useful made it more than just a punch line.

There are a number of other reasons that Willow dominated the conversation this year. Crucially, the Willow attempts to solves a real problem in a way that other products don’t. That’s a rarity at CES. New mothers have to pump several times per day for months, and it sounds like the Willow can make that experience easier. For starters, the Willow can be worn under a normal nursing bra, which means frazzled moms can continue to get other things done (or just hold on to their newborn) while pumping. It can also track output for them, and the pump’s bags can be stored right in the freezer and cut open when they need to fill a bottle.

For various reasons, no one on team Engadget was able to actually try out the device, but our research showed that there’s nothing quite like Willow on the market. Yes, other smart pumps exist, but based on our research, Willow appears to be the best option by far. If it delivers on its promises, it could make a tedious activity easier, and that’s worth celebrating.

However, it’s not good enough for Willow to have just made a good product. Thousands of companies exhibit at CES every year, and surely they’re not all selling iPhone cases, backpacks with e-ink screens and similar nonsense. But oftentimes, one of the big companies showing at CES delivers something that ends up being the buzz of the show, sucking much of the oxygen out of the room for the smaller companies with lesser marketing budgets.

Every year, we cover all variety of unconventional devices from unknown creators, but no publication can see everything at CES. And when big announcements from huge companies (such as Sling TV in 2015 or Chevy’s affordable and long-range Bolt EV in 2016) make headlines, it’s harder for offbeat products to get the attention they might deserve.

That wasn’t the case this year. Yes, LG won our Best of CES award with its stunning OLED TV that’s thinner than an iPhone. It’s an amazing TV — but it’s still just a TV. We’ve seen them before, and next CES we’ll see yet another stunner. That’s one thing you can count on at CES like clockwork. But the number of new mothers who could benefit from the $429 Willow likely exceeds the number of people who could afford and are in the market for LG’s flagship.

That utility truly set Willow apart this year. One of the biggest downsides of CES is the deluge of gadgets that are not only bad but also inessential, unnecessary, with no real reason for existing. Lots of others have the potential to be great but are still just iterations on existing products already on the market. Willow, on the other hand, is using technology to solve a real problem, something that all too few gadgets at CES do. Here’s hoping this year’s unexpected darling of the big show in Vegas delivers on its promises.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

Apple wants to build more of its data center tech in Arizona

Remember how Apple salvaged that defunct sapphire plant in Arizona by turning it into a data center? That facility might soon become more useful… if not as useful as you might think. Apple has proposed expanding the Mesa location to make data server cabinets. While it’s not initially clear why it’s making the move, a Business Insider source claims that this is about consolidating data center production. The company normally builds the technology on-site at its data centers, the insider says, and it now wants to switch to a centralized model where it ships everything from Arizona.

It’s tempting to portray this as an expansion of Apple manufacturing in response to a political climate that encourages more domestic production, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. The tech giant’s proposal revolves around declaring its Mesa facility a Foreign Trade Zone that would exempt it from paying customs fees on imported goods. Apple would choose the duty rates it pays for the finished products, too. In short: this is really about saving money, and any extra jobs would be strictly incidental.

Via: TechCrunch, Business Insider, Daily Dot

Source: Federal Register

AI ‘friends’ will help you pass the time on autonomous drives

Even more so than last year, CES 2017 was the unofficial auto show for the tech world. Automakers filled the North Hall and the Gold Lot of the Las Vegas Convention Center with self-driving prototypes and concept cars. But instead of talking about the power of Lidar or number-crunching processors, many started focusing on what the hell their passengers will do once they take their hands off the wheel.

When autonomous cars hit the market, manually driven ones won’t suddenly disappear. It’ll be decades before self-driving vehicles take over the roads completely. That means the horrible traffic you’re already stuck in might get a little better, but not by much. So instead of filling those moments by clutching the steering wheel and wishing death upon other drivers, you’ll have a bunch of free time, and that’s an opportunity for automakers to grab your eyes and ears.

The last thing automakers want is for bored drivers to default to their current time killer: their phone. The problem for the companies is that if you get your entertainment from the computer in your pocket, it really doesn’t matter which car you own. They’re all going to get you to your destination without your input. So they’ve concocted a novel idea: the AI friend.

Along with the deep learning that’s keeping cars from shooting off the road and into ditches, automakers are also building you a friend that knows about your wants and needs. Plus, in addition to knowing your schedule and where you like to eat, these robots will know all about your feels. Both Toyota and Honda talked about their in-car AI systems detecting a driver’s emotions and reacting either with music or restaurant recommendations.

It’s a future where you’re being coddled by a car, and actually, that seems fine to me. Who wouldn’t want a car that recognizes when you’re feeling down, blasts Duran Duran and takes you to the best taco place in town?

But those AI friends, like autonomous driving, are still a ways off. In the meantime, automakers are adding Alexa or (to a lesser extent) Cortana to their vehicles. Both of those platforms are setting the groundwork for a future in which you’re completely comfortable telling your car almost anything and that data being used to offer up personalized suggestions.

Many of the automakers also showed interiors with giant screens. To make sure the FF 91 never stops entertaining passengers, Faraday crammed a modem for every carrier into the car for high-speed broadband (and probably a high-priced phone bill). But while you’re leaning back and watching The Princess Bride for the 27th time, you don’t want to fiddle with interfaces and keyboards to take care of your business; you want a helper that’s always listening and eager to please.

Yes, CES had impressive autonomous vehicles that focused solely on the technology of keeping cars on the road. The NVIDIA/Audi system was impressive. As was Delphi’s latest self-driving car. But automakers have realized that if all the cars are basically doing the exact same thing regardless of what’s making the wheels turn, they need to find another way to lure in new buyers. Right now, that means building a “friend” to woo potential customers. We should prepare ourselves for a new BFF that knows your favorite song and how many times a week you eat Taco Bell. So just lean back and relax: Your corporate-built AI friend has everything you need.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

ESPN brings Apple’s handy single sign-on tool to its iOS apps

When it comes to streaming apps that are tied to a cable subscription, having to sign in repeatedly can become a bit of a chore. ESPN has updated its main app and WatchESPN with Apple’s single sign-on feature so you only have to enter your cable log-in once and it gets populated across the sport network’s software for any device connected to iCloud. While WatchESPN has had the ability to beam the action to your TV with Chromecast for a while now, that main ESPN app also gains the functionality with this new version.

The ESPN app now has a picture-in-picture mode so you can continue tapping around to access other news and stats while you watch. There’s also a new “enhanced” golf leaderboard with more even more info and a dedicated Australian edition for all the AFL coverage you need. The updated versions of both apps are available now via the iTunes App Store links down below.

Via: 9to5 Mac

Source: ESPN App, WatchESPN App

Sonos CEO steps down as company faces increased competition

After 14 years at the helm, Sonos CEO and co-founder John MacFarlane has stepped down. He has also resigned from the company’s board or directors, but will remain with Sonos to work on other projects and serve as a mentor to employees. MacFarlane’s transition is the latest in a handful of personnel moves that began last year. Sonos announced layoffs last March shortly before product head Marc Whitten left the company. Former president and chief commercial officer Patrick Spence will take over as CEO.

When those layoffs were announced, MacFarlane explained that Sonos was “adjusting to a world of streaming services.” He said the company would focus its attention on streaming and voice tech and in August, Sonos announced Spotify Connect and Amazon Echo integration was on the way. The ability to control music directly from the Spotify app arrived for all users back in December. The company last introduced a new speaker in September 2015 when it debuted the Play:5.

Over the last few years, Sonos has faced increased competition from a long list of companies. For a while, it was the only outfit offering multi-room audio, but now a number of other manufacturers are doing the same. Of course, there’s also popularity of devices like the Echo. Despite lukewarm reviews for audio quality, Echo’s addition of the Alexa virtual assistant has made for an attractive package. Google has taken note and released its own version with Home that also features voice cues and Google Assistant.

MacFarlance told The New York Times that he, like many of us, didn’t think Echo would take off at first. “I fell into that trap where I’ve been watching voice recognition for years,” he explained. “I tried Echo in the beginning and wrote it off. I had too many distractions at that time.” He says the continued rise of Spotify and Apple Music have helped sales and that the company sold 20 percent more gear during the holidays than it did in 2015.

The company’s new CEO explained to Engadget that the upcoming Echo integration was just one step Sonos is planning to take with voice. “We’re working with Amazon on Echo, but we want to do something deeper,” Spence told Engadget. He said we can expect to see that Echo integration arrive later this year. Spence went on to say that support for multiple services in a home with different people who may have vastly different preferences is where the company is focusing its attention. Like we saw last week at CES, voice control and virtual assistants will be even bigger in 2017, and it sounds like Sonos is getting in on the action.

Source: The New York Times

Formula E drivers battled simulator pros in a million-dollar e-race

With $1 million on the line, cheering crowds and drivers from the likes of McLaren and Ferrari, the inaugural Visa Vegas e-race did a good job of conveying at least some of the spectacle of a physical motor rally. Held on the final day of CES 2017, the competition saw 30 competitors take to the tracks in a race that was streamed on Twitch, with a live audience numbering in the hundreds. The spectators, a mix of fans and corporate sponsors, cheered, winced and applauded the challengers, which included 20 professional Formula E racers and the world’s 10 best simulator drivers.

The million-dollar prize pot consisted of $200,000 for the big winner as well as prizes for pole position and best lap. In fact, in the Vegas e-race, even taking part counted for something: Even the 30th place took home $20,000. In comparison, the total prize money for the iRacing world championship (sim racing’s biggest race until now) was $30,000. That’s not to say there’s no room for growth, though: Last year’s Dota 2 competitions had a prize pot of $18.6 million.

The whole event was organized by Formula E, which explains why all 20 of its drivers (and all 10 teams) participated in the race. Each simulator racer was paired with one of the teams. Who would have the advantage — the Formula E racers or the sim-hardened drivers? That would depend on how good the simulator is.

Panasonic Jaguar’s Formula E racer Mitch Evans told Engadget ahead of the Vegas showdown that simulators have been used by pro drivers for decades. “Some simulators give you feedback from the road, while most of them will offer force feedback to the driving wheel,” he said. “But it’s always artificial; it’s not the same as driving in real life. You’re forced to use your eyes a lot more to get the information you need during the race.”

Sim racers went on to dominate the starting grid following the preliminary races, with only one Formula E racer, Felix Rosenqvist, placing in the top 10 at the start.

The Vegas e-race even had its own scandal: Sim racer Oslo Pahkala was crowned the “on the road” winner, but race stewards penalized him after the race for his illegal use of Fanboost, a social network-powered bonus for racers that organizers added to the debut eRace. (Organizers say it was a software bug.) Fellow Sim racer Bono Huis, who dominated the the competition, was the eventual winner of the Vegas eRace, laying claim to $200,000 in the process. Formula E’s Rosenqvist maintained his place on the starting line, finishing second and earning the honor of highest-placed pro driver.

The Vegas e-race is off to a strong start, but it has a long journey ahead if it’s looking to match the popularity (and prize pool) of the world’s biggest e-sports.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from CES 2017.

Source: FIA

‘Gears of War 4’ will punish rage quitters

Rage quitting isn’t just a problem in fighting games. There’s a good chance you’ve played shooters where teammates drop the very second it looks like they’ll lose, dooming your team to defeat. And The Coalition wants to do something about it in Gears of War 4. The developer is rolling out Title Update 3 in January, and it’ll introduce the first phase of efforts to punish those who bail prematurely. If a player quits a Core or Competitive round, they’ll face a temporary matchmaking ban to “discourage drop out behavior” — and the more they do it, that longer that ban persists. Moreover, Squads with a suspended player won’t be allowed to do matchmaking until the offending player’s penalty is over.

Unlike some games, though, there’s a shot at redemption. A Join in Progress feature gives players the opportunity to return to a match within 5 minutes of leaving, erasing their penalties in the process. This will be helpful for quitters who regret their impulsive decisions, but it’ll be particularly important for anyone who drops unintentionally (say, due to a flaky internet connection).

Other improvements? Two classic maps, Blood Drive and Clocktower, are coming to multiplayer. The Gears team also hopes to improve its eSports standing with a revamped spectator mode that shows more info while simultaneously shrinking the visual clutter. And if you’re a fan of collectibles, Title Update 3 will add 13 new characters and over 260 weapon skins. In other words: the Coalition clearly wants to keep you playing past the holidays.

Source: Xbox Wire

Two research teams taught their AIs to beat pros at poker

Poker-playing bots aren’t exactly new — just ask anyone who’s tried to win a little cash on PokerStars — but two different groups of researchers are setting their sights a little higher. To no one’s surprise, those AI buffs are trying to teach their algorithms how to beat world-class Texas Hold’em players, and they’re juuuust about there.

In a paper (PDF) published on January 6, a team of collaborators from the University of Alberta, Charles University and the Czech Technical University claimed that their DeepStack AI is the “the first computer program to beat professional poker players in heads-up no-limit Texas hold’em”. That confident (but not yet peer-reviewed) proclamation on the heels of a string of victories against high-level human players — in total, 44,852 hands were played against 33 players recruited by the International Federation of Poker. Well, “string” might not be the right word; it sounds like the human players were basically routed.

“Over all games played, DeepStack won 492 mbb/g,” the DeepStack paper reads. “This is over 4 standard deviations away from zero, and so highly significant. Note that professional poker players consider 50 mbb/g a sizable margin.”

It’s also important to remember that these are games of no-limit, hold’em, which are significantly more complex than limit hold’em. Remember: in the limited format, bets and raises are capped at whatever the big blind is. No-limit hold’em, rather, lets players bet as much or as little as they want as long as it’s over the minimum raise — this is probably the format you’re more familiar with if you enjoy watching people go all-in.

In fact, it’s safe to say the difference in the level of computational complexity between versions of the game is pretty staggering. After all, those looser rules allow for a higher degree of flexibility, to say nothing of sheer gamesmanship. An algorithm would have to factor in chip counts, the significance of these unlimited bets, how hands played in the past affect current strategy and more. That same team from the University of Alberta claimed to have solved limit hold’em entirely two years ago — a testament to its relative simplicity — and AI researcher Noam Brown said last March there’s “no chance” no-limit hold’em will be solved in our lifetime.

That doesn’t mean Brown isn’t going to try. The DeepStack paper was published just days before a team from Carnegie Mellon University is due to pit its own poker-playing AI against a handful of pro no-limit hold’em players in a Pittsburgh casino. (Whether the timing of the DeepStack announcement is a coincidence or a deviously brilliant bit of cutthroat academia is up to you.) This new AI — Libratus — was developed nearly from scratch by Ph.D. candidate Brown and CMU computer science professor Tuomas Sandholm, and will spend the next 20 days playing 120,000 hands against a quartet of competitors.

While some poker critics gave the DeepStack announcement some flak because there didn’t appear to be any top-tier players in the mix, Libratus is facing off against some well-known players. Of the four, California’s Jason Les appears to be the most notable: he’s ranked 198th on the Global Poker Index and has cleared $1 million in winnings. A string of decisive victories against these players could legitimize AI superiority over humans in yet another widely played game. The AI of the future won’t just be after our pride as players — they could easily come for our wallets, too.