BeeLine’s bike computer makes every ride an adventure

Cycling in a city can be stressful, especially if you’re headed somewhere that you’ve never been to before. Most people ride with a specialized cycle computer, or with a smartphone strapped to their handlebars. While useful, both devices can be a distraction on busy, dangerous roads. Instructive turn-by-turn directions also do little to improve your street-level knowledge — the screen becomes a crutch, rather than a tool to help you learn about the various roads, bridges and tunnels around you.

Enter BeeLine, a new type of cycling computer. It works more like a compass than a traditional GPS device, with just an arrow to indicate the direction of your final destination. There are no turn-by-turn instructions — just a general indication of where you need to go. It pairs with your smartphone over Bluetooth and presents information with a coin-sized e-paper display. Before setting off, you’ll set your objective in the app and any places you want to hit along the way. BeeLine will then spring into action, tracking your position with its built-in built-in magnetometer, accelerometer and gyroscope, as well as the GPS on your phone.

The arrow gives you a sense of where to go, but it’s up to your eyes and ears to figure out the exact route. On a chilly Tuesday morning, I pedalled through central London to find the BeeLine team at four mystery locations. Needless to say, it was trickier than I anticipated. The computer would often suggest a hard right, for instance, but I was stuck on a road without a right turn for several miles (or rather, it felt like miles). I had no choice but to barrel down the street and wait for an opportunity to course-correct. Sometimes I would take a seemingly correct turn, only to find the road was a dead-end. Occasionally I felt frustrated, like I was wasting my time and the people around me who clearly knew where they were going.

But there were clear benefits too. I soon stopped staring at the screen and examined the world around me. Cycling in London is hard, especially when you’re surrounded by aggressive or just plain inconsiderate drivers. Using BeeLine meant that I could keep my eyes on the road and avoid nasty collisions. I also loved the glanceable nature of the display. A quick look down and I knew immediately if I was headed in the wrong direction. No looking at street names or wondering why the blue dot in Google Maps had stopped moving. Just a simple arrow and the distance left to travel.

The BeeLine computer comes with a silicone strap that wraps around your bike’s handlebars or stem. The device is water resistant while it’s inside the protective case, but you’ll need to take it out to charge the included 350mAh battery. That shouldn’t happen too often, however, because the team says a single charge will last you roughly four weeks — your own mileage will vary, however, depending on how often and far you ride.

Cycling this way isn’t for everyone. If you’re in a rush, or struggling with a city’s road layout, you’ll probably want specific instructions. No fuss, no time-wasting, just detailed directions. And that’s okay, because BeeLine is aimed at a different crowd. The cyclist who has more time on their hands, or likes to ride for fun at the weekend. It might take you longer, but the process will make you a more educated rider. And once you know a place inside out, you might not need BeeLine at all. Then you’ll be faster than the people stopping at every junction to check their route on Google Maps.

BeeLine started as a Kickstarter project in 2015. The London-based team is now shipping its first units to backers and taking regular orders online. It comes in grey, red and blue, and will set you back £99 (roughly $119).

Ofcom fines EE £2.7 million for overcharging customers

Oh dear. Ofcom has caught another mobile carrier failing in its duty to provide decent customer support. The villain this time is EE, after it overcharged more than 30,000 customers for calling its “150” service line. These subscribers had calling while roaming in the EU — the problem is they were charged £1.20 per minute, rather than EE’s promised 19p per minute rate. That “carelessness” and ‘negligence,” as Ofcom describes it, led to a combined overcharge of £245,700 between July 2014 and 2015. EE is now being fined £2.7 million for the mess, which needs to be paid in 20 working days. Ofcom will then transfer the money to the UK’s Treasury.

Ofcom was notified by TÜV SÜD BABT, an external company that monitors and approves EE’s billing systems, in September 2015. The problem occurred because EE had told its record-keeping partners to remove the UK’s international dialling code (+44) for people who were calling short code numbers, including EE’s own “150” line. The system then mistook the “1” in “150” as an attempt to call the United States — which is why people in EU were charged £1.20, rather than 19 pence per minute. It was, quite clearly, a huge technical mess, and Ofcom blames EE for issuing the command and failing to check it had been implemented properly.

The kicker? According to Ofcom, EE said it couldn’t identify the people it had overcharged — which was untrue — and wanted to give the money it had collected unfairly to charity. Most customers have now been refunded, however EE has been “unable to identify at least 6,905 customers,” who are owed more than £60,000 collectively. The company has made a £62,000 donation to charity, however Ofcom wants the company to make another attempt at tracing and refunding the customers who are out of pocket.

The problem was exasperated when EE made it free to call “150” from inside the European Union in November 2015. The network provider charged another 7,673 customers roughly £2,200 up until January 11, 2016. On this occasion, the company was able to identify the problem and offered affected callers full refunds.

Back in 2014, Ofcom slapped Three with a £250,000 fine for its poor handling of customer complaints. EE was then charged £1 million in 2015 for similar slip-ups. Today’s fine is significantly larger — indicating the scale of the company’s mistakes — and will hopefully act as a deterrent for any business thinking of doing the same. “EE didn’t take enough care to ensure that its customers were billed accurately,” Lindsey Fussell, Ofcom’s Consumer Group Director, said. “This ended up costing customers thousands of pounds, which is completely unacceptable. Any company that breaks Ofcom’s rules should expect similar consequences.”

Source: Ofcom

No Concessions For Apple in India As State Mobile Manufacturing Policy Up For Review

The Indian government has decided not to offer special concessions to Apple as part of negotiations as the company looks to build its first manufacturing plants in the country.

According a report in the India Economic Times, New Delhi will instead review its entire policy on mobile manufacturing as part of a wider effort to promote its ‘Make in India’ initiative. This could meet some of the demands that Apple has made as well as benefit other phone makers, said officials.

India needs to support an iconic brand like Apple for the success of the Make in India campaign, officials said. “Our import duty is high,” one of them said. “As long as they are getting into exports, our objective should be to give them lowest duty so as to ensure that their product is competitive. Hence we may even relook at the policy as a whole.” Another official said no decision had been taken but that concessions cannot be given to just one company. “Normally, similar dispensation has to be given to others similarly placed,” he said.

The issue will be looked at in detail at a high-level meeting between Apple executives and state officials set to take place next week. According to Wednesday’s report, representatives from revenue, industry, and IT government departments will consider Apple’s requests, which include a 15-year customs duty holiday on the import of iPhone kits, new and used capital equipment, and consumables.

Last year, Apple requested permission to set up its own retail outlets in India without being subject to the state’s compulsory 30 percent local sourcing rule, claiming it was bringing cutting edge technology to the country. The ministry of finance denied the request as it did not consider Apple’s products to fall into the cutting edge category.

According to officials, India’s rationale for looking anew at its own trade policy is that it must follow the same set of principles prevalent elsewhere which have helped businesses become global manufacturers. India is already home to a crowded mobile phones market, with Chinese firms Huawei and Xiaomi among some 42 competing handset makers. Apart from Apple, no other company has approached the government for any incentives, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Tag: India
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Google could bring its budget Android One phones to the U.S. later this year

Low-cost phones with software updates directly from Google.

Google launched the Android One platform in India in 2014, tying up with third-party vendors to offer $100 phones with clean Android and the promise of quick updates. According to The Information, Google is looking to bring Android One phones to the U.S. “before the middle of the year.” The phones will be priced between $200 to $300, and will receive software updates and security patches directly from Google for “two years from sale date.”

The report also mentions that Google is planning a major ad campaign for the Android One platform, which will likely be similar to what we’ve seen the company do for the Pixel. There’s no mention of a manufacturer yet, but it looks like Google is picking LG for the first device.

Google largely failed to make a dent with Android One in India as the first wave of phones were not as powerful as their competitors, and there wasn’t a lot in the way of a marketing push from the company. However, Google has learned from its mistakes, and the company has since allowed more leeway to its partners over the specs and design. The $200 to $300 price range also allows Google’s partners more choice when it comes to choosing the internal hardware.

Android One is the ideal platform to showcase Google’s vision for the budget segment.

With the Nexus brand going away and the Pixel positioned at the high-end segment, Android One could be the ideal platform to fill the void in the budget category in the U.S. A decent sub-$300 device with software updates directly from Google will be a potent combination, and right now, there aren’t many devices outside of the Moto G family that offer a clean Android experience and great hardware in that price segment.

Google will also be looking to the Android One platform as a way to raise brand awareness around Android itself. The company will also likely use the platform to push its own services, including the Google Assistant. Currently, Assistant is limited to the Pixels, but it is entirely possible to see it make its way to Android One handsets in the future. On that note, it looks like Huawei’s decision to use Amazon Alexa in its U.S.-bound Mate 9 caused consternation between the Chinese manufacturer and Google.

Emotional sci-fi game ‘Alone with You’ hits Steam next month

Alone with You tells a surprising story about relationships, love and friendship — surprising because it stars just one living human as he attempts to escape an abandoned planet that’s scheduled for implosion. His only companion is the space colony’s artificial intelligence system and holographs of dead colonists. Through interaction with the AI system and nightly conversations with digital ghosts, the survivor discovers details about the people who used to inhabit the planet and how their lives collided.

And now, it’s all coming to Steam.

Alone with You is scheduled to land on Steam on February 9th for $10, but during launch week it’ll be sold at a 15 percent discount. The game debuted on the PlayStation 4 and Vita this past August.

Alone with You is the follow-up to Benjamin Rivers’ hit horror game, Home, which earned critical and public acclaim when it came out in 2012. Home helped establish Rivers as a successful independent developer with an eye for creating complex, player-driven narratives. While he was still working on Alone with You in 2015, Rivers talked with Engadget about the importance of tapping into players’ emotions in video games.

“Storytelling is the most satisfying reward in games,” Rivers said. “Feeling the gears in your brain turn as you begin to understand a mystery, learning to empathize with, or perhaps even to change a character’s behavior — those are the feedback loops that make my brain buzz the way someone might enjoy progressing up a level system. My other personal goal is to prove that narrative-driven games don’t have to be boring or non-interactive or clumsy autobiographies.”

Hackers break into Samsung Smartcam again

Samsung’s SmartCam has fit into users’ DIY surveillance setups for years thanks to its smartphone control and local (non-cloud) storage. But at last August’s DEFCON 22 security conference, members of the hacking blog Exploiteers listed exploits for the networked camera that allowed remote camera execution and let them change the administrator’s password. Rather than fix it, Samsung ripped out the accessible web interface and forced users to run their SmartCams through the device giant’s SmartCloud website. So, like good little hackers, Exploiteers broke into the camera again with a different exploit.

Samsung had patched the original vulnerabilities but left one set of scripts untouched: The php files which provide firmware updates via the camera’s “iWatch” webcam monitoring service. Those scripts have a command injection bug allowing a user without admin privileges to allow root remote command execution. Exploiteers helpfully provided a technical writeup explaining how to do it, fix the vulnerability and even re-enable the web interface.

Source: Exploiteers

Griffin Connected Coffee Maker Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

The Griffin Connected Coffee Maker.

Griffin

Enter the $100 Griffin Connected Coffee Maker, another product that combines smart home technology with a humble kitchen appliance. While not quite as radical perhaps as the company’s upcoming $100 Connected Toaster, this automatic coffee pot boasts many of the same magical abilities.

On the surface, the Connected Coffee Maker looks like your average programmable java brewer manufacturers have sold for decades. The Griffin is more rounded, with pleasingly curved edges instead of the sharp lines and boxy corners evident on typical counter appliances.

A main section up top houses a filter funnel and ground coffee within. Below that sits a large glass carafe that’s big enough to collect a full 12 cups (5 ounces per cup most likely) of coffee. In the back of the appliance and contained within its plastic chassis is the water reservoir. I’m not a fan of this type of tank setup since it tends to use a small lid and mouth. In my experience, the tiny opening makes for a tricky target to hit while pouring water into the reservoir.

What really sets the Connected Coffee Maker apart, though, are its smart capabilities, which are still relatively uncommon. Griffin claims you’ll be able to control the coffee maker through a mobile app on your phone or tablet. According to the company, this will allow you to tweak brewing parameters such as coffee strength to your liking. You should also have the option to save your preferences for later.

Ultimately, sophisticated smarts do not a quality coffee pot make. If the machine can’t brew drinkable java, it will suffer the same fate as the Mr. Coffee Smart Optimal Brew, a coffee machine that could only muster weak and flavorless cups of drip. Hopefully the $100 Griffin Connected Coffee Maker will demonstrate brewing performance as good as the similarly priced Braun BrewSense KF7150.

The Griffin Connected Coffee Maker at CES 2017.

Chris Monroe/CNET

To get your hands on an appliance that brews delicious coffee plus has high-tech smart abilities, you’ll have to spend a lot more money. Right now the best option that meets these criteria is the $329 Behmor Connected Coffee Brewer. That machine makes excellent coffee and is certified by the SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America) as a “Golden Cup” brewer.

The coffee maker at a glance

• Internal Bluetooth for wireless control
• Will link to companion app to schedule brewing and save your preferences
• Price: $100
• Availability: Q2 2017

Snowden never filed paperwork requesting a pardon

If you thought Obama might give Edward Snowden a similar reprieve to Chelsea Manning this week, think again. While the formed NSA-contractor turned whistleblower has explained why the president should grant him clemency, he hasn’t done anything beyond that. “Mr. Snowden has not filed paperwork to seek clemency from this administration,” the White House told CNN today.

Further on that, Snowden has still not faced trial or been formally charged with any crimes — unlike General James Cartwright of Stuxnet infamy. “I can’t pardon somebody who hasn’t gone before a court and presented themselves,” Obama said in November. Having a trial isn’t a necessity for a pardon, mind you, but based on the President’s comments at the time it doesn’t sound like he was interested in broaching the situation that way.

“At the point at which Mr. Snowden wants to present himself before the legal authorities and make his arguments or have his lawyers make his arguments,” he said, “then I think those issues will come into play.”

As of publication time, the ACLU-led petition to grant Snowden full immunity was still roughly 500 signatures short of the 60,000 target — up from 57,000 signatures in September.

It’s worth noting that Snowden himself implored President Obama that if he only granted one act of clemency upon exiting 1600 Pennsylvania Ave to free Chelsea Manning. The president commuted Manning’s sentence today and she will go free May 17th this year instead of 2045.

Mr. President, if you grant only one act of clemency as you exit the White House, please: free Chelsea Manning. You alone can save her life.

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) January 11, 2017

Source: CNN

What’s on TV: ‘Hunted,’ ‘Teachers,’ ‘Voltron’

This week the NFL rolls out its conference championship games, but if you’re not a sports fan there’s still plenty to look forward to. On Sunday night, CBS kicks off its The Running Man-ish (book, not movie) reality TV show Hunted, while Netflix is ready to release the second season of Voltron: Legendary Defender. Teachers is also returning on TV Land, Baskets is back on FX and The Flame in the Flood has launched on PS4. Look after the break to check out each day’s highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).

Blu-ray & Games & Streaming

• The Girl on the Train (4K)
• Ouija: Origin of Evil
• Keeping Up with the Joneses
• Death Race 2050
• Ali (Commemorative edition)
• Battleship (4K)
• Resident Evil: Afterlife (4K)
• Fences
• The Whole Truth
• RWBY: Grimm Eclipse (PS4, Xbox One)
• 2064: Read Only Memories (PS4, PC)
• Outbreak (PC)
• The Flame in the Flood (PS4)

Tuesday

• Neal Brennan: 3 Mics, Netflix, 3AM
• NCIS, CBS, 8PM
• New Girl, Fox, 8PM
• The Wall, NBC, 8PM
• WWE Smackdown, USA, 8PM
• American Housewife, ABC, 8:30PM
• The Mick, Fox, 8:30PM
• Teen Wolf, MTV, 9PM
• Inside the NFL, Showtime 9PM
• This is Us, NBC, 9PM
• Fresh Off the Boat, ABC, 9PM
• Bull, CBS, 9PM
• No Tomorrow (season finale), CW, 9PM
• Bones, Fox, 9PM
• The Real O’neals, ABC, 9:30PM
• Teachers (season premiere), TV Land, 10PM
• Shooter (season finale), USA, 10PM
• Chicago Fire, NBC, 10PM
• Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., ABC, 10PM
• Taboo, FX, 10PM
• Killing Fields Discovery, 10PM
• Sweet/Vicious, MTV, 10PM
• Noisey, Viceland, 10PM
• Throwing Shade (series premiere), TV Land, 10:30PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11PM

Wednesday

• Fresh Off the Boat, ABC, 8PM
• Blindspot, NBC, 8PM
• Lethal Weapon, Fox, 8PM
• Unsung: Fat Joe, TV One, 8PM
• Lucha Underground, El Rey, 8PM
• Speechless, ABC, 8:30PM
• People’s Choice Awards 2017, CBS, 9PM
• Are You the One?, MTV, 9PM
• Law & Order: SVU, NBC, 9PM
• Modern Family, ABC, 9PM
• Frequency, CW, 9PM
• Nova, PBS, 9PM
• Star, Fox, 9PM
• NFL Turning Point, NBC Sports Network, 9PM
• Workaholics, Comedy Central, 10PM
• It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, FXX, 10PM
• Match Game, ABC, 10PM
• Blood & Fury: America’s Civil War (season finale), American History Channel, 10PM
• Incorporated, Syfy, 10PM
• Code Black, CBS, 10PM
• Bong Appetit, Viceland, 10PM
• Man Seeking Woman, FXX, 10:30PM
• Jeff & Some Aliens, Comedy Central, 10:30PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11PM

Thursday

• The Grand Tour, Amazon Prime, 7PM
• Through the Fire: The Legacy of Barack Obama, BET, 7PM
• The Big Bang Theory, CBS, 8PM
• The Good Place (season finale), NBC, 8PM
• The Great Indoors, CBS, 8:30PM
• Chicago Med, NBC, 9PM
• Alone, History, 9PM
• Mom, CBS, 9PM
• My Kitchen Rules, Fox, 9PM
• Life in Pieces, CBS, 9:30PM
• Lip Sync Battle, Spike TV, 9:30 & 10PM
• Baskets (season premiere), FX, 10PM
• Colony, USA, 10PM
• The Blacklist, NBC, 10PM
• Portlandia, IFC, 10PM
• F*ck That’s Delicious, Viceland, 10PM
• Pure Genius, CBS, 10PM
• Nightwatch, A&E, 10PM
• Desus & Mero, Viceland, 11PM

Friday

• Frontier (S1), Netflix, 3AM
• Take the 10, Netflix, 3AM
• Voltron: Legendary Defender (S2), Netflix, 3AM
• The Vampire Diaries, CW, 8PM
• Grimm, NBC, 8PM
• Last Man Standing, ABC, 8PM
• Change and Challenge: The Inauguration of Donald Trump, CBS, 8PM
• Rosewood, Fox, 8PM
• Dr. Ken, ABC, 8:30PM
• 20/20: The Inauguration of Donald J Trump, ABC, 9PM
• Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, CW, 9PM
• Emerald City, NBC, 9PM
• Hawaii Five-0, CBS, 9PM
• Sleepy Hollow, Fox, 9PM
• The Wheel, Discovery, 10PM
• Blue Bloods, CBS, 10PM

Saturday

• US Figure Skating Championships, NBC, 8PM
• Beaches, Lifetime, 8PM
• Cops, Spike TV, 8PM
• Ransom, CBS, 8PM
• Spurs/Cavaliers, ABC, 8:30PM
• Saturday Night Live: Aziz Ansari / Big Sean, NBC, 11:30PM

Sunday

• NFL NFC Championship Game, Fox, 3PM
• NFL AFC Championship Game, CBS, 6:40PM
• 60 Minutes, CBS, 7PM
• NCIS: LA, CBS, 8PM
• The Simpsons, Fox, 8PM
• The Librarians (season finale), TNT, 8PM
• Mercy Street (season premiere), PBS, 8PM
• Havana Moon, Starz, 9PM
• Homeland, Showtime, 9PM
• The Young Pope, HBO, 9PM
• Victoria, PBS, 9PM
• Hunted (series premiere), CBS, 10PM
• Conviction, ABC, 10PM
• The Affair, Showtime, 10PM

NASA’s Curiosity finds new water evidence in possible cracked mud

NASA’s four-year-old Curiosity rover spent 2016 discovering new clues to Mars’ history, including veins potentially from evaporated lakes and mineral deposits suggesting the planet once had oxygen. The craft spent the beginning of 2017 examining a newly-discovered natural formation: Rock cross-cut with ridges, which are probably mud cracks.

Assuming that interpretation holds up, it will be the first mud cracks (okay, “desiccation cracks”) confirmed by the rover. Regardless, the cracked surface formed 3 billion years ago and was buried by layers of sediment, which all became stratified rock, according to a NASA blog post. Wind erosion exposed the split pieces, which are located in an area known as “Old Soaker” on lower Mount Sharp. Other evidence in the site includes a layering pattern called cross-bedding, which could have formed where water flowed vigorously, as in near the shore of a lake. Then again, it could have been made from windblown sediment during a dry episode.

Mars once had lakes, or at least wetter conditions than it does today, based on the latest data from @MarsCuriosity: https://t.co/6hGhodCQwE pic.twitter.com/SLKmW0wgj8

— NASA (@NASA) January 17, 2017

Source: NASA blog