Verizon is reportedly exploring combination with Charter

AT&T bought DirecTV for $48.5 billion in 2014 and now it looks like another wireless carrier is interested in getting into the television business. The Wall Street Journal reports that Verizon is exploring a combination with Charter Communications that would bring together millions of customers from the two companies. Charter and Time Warner Cable merged in 2016, a year after the two sides announced a $55 billion deal.

WSJ explains that talks between Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam and Charter officials are preliminary and that a deal might not happen. It’s also unknown if Charter is even open to a combination agreement. If something does materialize between the two companies, it would bring together Verizon’s 114 million wireless customers with Charter’s television audience of 17 million subscribers and a broadband business that counts 21 million. We reached out to Verizon for a comment on the matter and we will update this post when we hear back.

MIT finds actual wisdom in the wisdom of crowds

To paraphrase Men In Black’s Agent K, a person is smart, but people are dumb, panicky and dangerous animals. Researchers at MIT and Princeton wanted to see if, despite this, they were able to extract better information from crowds. They appear to have succeeded after developing an algorithm that looks at what people answer, but also what they believe other people will answer too.

As the paper’s authors explain, the democratic method of asking people to choose between two (or more) options isn’t perfect. The system often skews heavily in favor of “shallow, lowest common denominator information at the expense of novel or specialized knowledge.” Hence the idea, so espoused in the UK’s recent referendum to leave the European Union, that the people had grown tired of experts.

In order to combat this, the pair developed a system that essentially gives extra weight to the answers of better-informed people. In the example, a group was given two questions: “Is Philadelphia the capital of Pennsylvania?” and “Will other people think that Philadelphia is the capital of Pennsylvania?”

Now, Philadelphia isn’t the capital city of Pennsylvania, that honor goes to Harrisburg, but Philadelphia is bigger, more populous and better known. But those people who answered no to the first question said yes to the second, showing that they anticipated being in the minority.

The researchers’ solution to polling data is to only select the answer that is more popular than people predict it to be. As MIT News explains, it’s this smaller group that helps give you the proper weight of the overall answers. Put simply, it’s worth looking at those folks who answer against what they believe everyone else will say, since they may be smarter than everyone else.

There’s a sting in this tale, however, because this newfangled algorithm may not be enough to overcome human biases in some fields. At the same time that news of the research was published, the Washington Post carried out a similar experiment with unfortunate results.

The paper asked people to compare images of the National Mall on Jan 20th, 2009 and Jan 20th, 2017 — inauguration day. They were asked, simply, to choose which image displayed more people, and those with a political slant toward the current administration chose the clearly less populous picture. So, while scientists are still trying to make surveys and voting patterns better, they’re still going to have to contend with people being people.

Source: MIT News, Nature

Apple Support App Now Available in 22 Countries

The official Apple Support app for iPhone and iPad launched in additional countries this week, including but not limited to Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The app first launched in the Netherlands in November and expanded to the United States last month.

The app mirrors Apple’s support website, providing users with a list of their Apple devices, options to receive support by phone, chat, or email, and the ability to schedule a Genius Bar appointment or repair with an Apple Authorized Service Provider. The app also features how-to articles and other helpful information.

The app is now available in 22 countries around the world as planned:

• Australia
• Belgium
• Brazil
• Canada
• France
• Germany
• Hong Kong
• Ireland
• Italy
• Japan
• Liechtenstein
• Macau
• Mexico
• Netherlands
• Singapore
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Turkey
• United Arab Emirates
• United Kingdom
• United States

Apple Support is a free download on the App Store [Direct Link] for iPhone and iPad.

Tags: App Store, Apple Support
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Google Translate Updates Mobile App With Live ‘Word Lens’ Japanese Translations

Google Translate recently updated its iOS and Android applications, bringing Japanese-to-English and English-to-Japanese translation support to its augmented reality “Word Lens” feature. Thanks to the added support, English-speaking users can point their smartphone camera at Japanese text and instantly get an English translation on screen. The same can be done for Japanese tourists visiting predominantly English-speaking countries.

Before the update, Google mentioned that users could snap a picture of Japanese text and get an English translation, but thanks to the AR in Word Lens, “it’s a whole lot more convenient” to figure out where you are in a foreign city with the live translation feature. Notably, users don’t have to worry about having an Internet or data connection when using Word Lens during travel, as the translation software works offline.

The Google Translate app already lets you snap a photo of Japanese text and get a translation for it in English. But it’s a whole lot more convenient if you can just point your camera and instantly translate text on the go. With Word Lens, you just need to fire up the Translate app, point your camera at the Japanese text, and the English translations will appear overlaid on your screen—even if you don’t have an Internet or data connection. It’s every savvy traveller’s dream!

Back in November Google announced an update to Google Translate that made longer articles and paragraphs “a lot smoother and easier to read.” Using new AI learning software called Neural Machine Translation, Google Translate can now learn over time “to create better, more natural translations.”

Google Translate is available to download for free from the App Store [Direct Link].

Tag: Google Translate
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Scientists are making genetically modified cyborg dragonflies

A biomedical solutions company called Draper is developing a technology that can turn a dragonfly into a living drone. They call it the DragonflEye project, and the technology’s main component is a tiny backpack equipped with solar panels to harvest energy. It also has integrated guidance and navigation system composed of optogenetic tools that Draper made with the help of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) at Janelia Farm. The idea is to use those tools to send commands from the backpack to the “steering” neurons that control the insect’s flight inside the dragonfly’s nerve cord. It’s a totally different approach to hijacking an insect’s muscles.

To be able to control those steering neurons, the HHMI researchers found a way to make them sensitive to light by incorporating genes naturally found in eyes. With those genes in place, the tools or the “optrodes” in the backpack will be able to guide the insects using pulses of light. In an interview with IEEE Spectrum, the program’s lead researcher, Jesse J. Wheeler, said his team already created the first-generation version of the system, though it sounds like they haven’t been able to test it yet. He said:

“In the first year of the project, we focused on developing core enabling technologies like the backpack, optrode, and synthetic biology toolkit for the dragonfly. As we begin our second year, we are preparing to equip dragonflies with our first-generation backpacks in a motion capture room that can monitor their precise flight movements as data is captured from navigation system. This will allow us to develop precise onboard tracking algorithms for autonomous navigation.”

If the technique ends up viable for practical use, it could turn dragonflies into tiny surveillance systems or pollination machines. Since the key to the technology is the backpack, though, Draper believes it could also be used with honeybees and other insects of the same size.

Source: Draper, IEEE Spectrum

Fender brings its guitar tuner app to Android devices

Fender kicked off its digital push back in August with the release of the Tune app for iOS. Now the guitar maker is bringing that piece of mobile software to Android devices. Fender Tune is now available from Google Play, delivering a convenient option for tuning your guitar or bass without having to back an extra piece of tech. Sure, there are already a number of apps that do this, but the company takes tuning one step further.

Fender Tune also helps beginners get the hang of things with tips for tone, how to strum and suggestions for setting up an amp. There are both automatic and manual tuner settings as well. That automatic option will employ your phone to “listen” as you pluck a string to guide you to the correct note. What’s more, Fender is working on other apps that will wrangle settings, emulate the signature tone of famous guitarists and more. Those upcoming options will also sync wirelessly with the company’s amps via Bluetooth.

Source: Google Play, Fender

Facebook offers extra security with USB key support

None of us want strangers accessing our accounts online. You might use a password manager, or two-factor authentication via SMS, but there’s another way you can stay protected — physical security keys. Following Google, Dropbox and others, Facebook has added support for these privacy-centric dongles today. When you log into your account, that means you can choose to prove your identity with a special USB stick, rather than a code sent to your phone. Yes, it’s another object to keep on your keychain, but in return you’ll be getting a superior level of protection.

Physical keys are supposed to be more effective than mobile apps and SMS verification, because there’s no chance of phishing or man-in-the-middle attacks. They’re also potentially faster — just a tap on the physical key and you should have access to your Facebook account. It’s a welcome move from the company, which is also announcing a redesigned Privacy Basics page today. Neither service is mandatory, but it’s good to know they exist for Facebook’s more privacy conscious users. Cyberattacks and identity theft are on the rise — it’s never a bad time to strengthen your defences.

Source: Facebook

Android apps with emoji descriptions get more downloads

With a feature film, touch bar and dedicated search engine, emojis are having a moment. Now, app developer Novoda has done a study showing that they can even convince you to download apps. Using the A/B tool in Google’s Developer Console, the team tested three emojis (🚀, 🚮 and 💯) in the short description of the popular CCleaner app from Piriform.

The group tested each icon with 25 percent of Google Play Store users in various countries, and used none for the other 25 percent as a control group. In Germany and Italy, the “rocket” and “100” emojis icons prompted users to download the app over 20 percent more often than the control group. Poland, bizarrely, showed a propensity for the “litter can” emoji to the tune of about 7 percent.

Results in Russia, Spain and France were inconclusive, and though the US is the most prolific emoji-using nation, folks there were more likely to download an app without one in the description, oddly enough.

Novoda’s takeaway is that “app store optimization has real and measurable effects on [developer’s] revenue,” it writes. However, that doesn’t apply across nations, and users in different countries prefer different emojis. “Localize your tests to get better results,” it advises. We’d be curious to see if they get the same results in a year or two — by then, the trend might have wound down, and Patrick Stewart may be having regrets.

Source: Novoda

Lenovo reveals new clamshell, convertible laptops aimed at students and schools

Why it matters to you

Students and schools may want to see what Lenovo’s new Chromebooks and Windows 10-based notebooks bring next month.

During the BETT 2017 convention in London, Lenovo revealed its latest products for the educational market that included updated ThinkPad 11e and ThinkPad 11e Yoga laptops. Both are part of Microsoft’s new “Intune for Education” program aimed to push Windows 10 into the educational system and seemingly target the low-priced Chromebook market. However, Lenovo knows many of its customers love Chrome OS, and plans to ship Chromebook versions of these two models as well.

But that’s not all. Lenovo also plans to introduce the Lenovo N23 Chromebook next month followed by the Lenovo N23 Yoga Chromebook in April, and then the Lenovo N24 laptop later this year. However, as shown in the table below, Lenovo’s new Chromebooks targeting the educational sector will still be a cheaper option than the Windows 10 units on the pricing front. Whether or not that rumored Windows 10 licensing fee reduction applied to these laptops is unknown for now.

Windows 10
Chrome OS
ThinkPad 11e:
February
Starting @ $519
($419 for Shape the Future)
May
Starting @ $369
ThinkPad 11e Yoga:
February
Starting @ $599
($499 for Shape the Future)
May
Starting @ $449
Lenovo N24:
Mid 2017
Pricing unknown
N/A
Lenovo N23:
N/A
February
Starting @ $199
Lenovo N23 Yoga:
N/A
April
Starting @ $279

Despite the announcement, Lenovo didn’t provide any hardware details regarding the upcoming laptops, nor have the units appeared on the company’s website. All we currently have to go on is a general list of features for each until the products show up online.

More: Lenovo’s Legion Y720 is a laptop designed specifically for virtual reality

For starters, the following table shows the ThinkPad 11e laptops with Windows and Chrome OS that Lenovo plans to replace next month. There’s really no difference between the “vanilla” clamshell models and the convertible “Yoga” units save for the obvious screen flexibility with the Yoga models, and the added Windows 7 Pro option for the clamshell models.

ThinkPad 11e
Windows
ThinkPad 11e
Chrome OS
Form factor:
Clamshell
Convertible (Yoga only)
Clamshell
Convertible (Yoga only)
Operating system:
Windows 10 Home
Windows 10 Pro
Windows 7 Pro
Chrome OS
Screen size:
11.6 inches
11.6 inches
Resolution:
1,366 x 768
1,366 x 768
Processor:
Intel Core i3-6100U
Intel Celeron N3150
Intel Pentium 4405U
Intel Celeron N3150
Graphics:
Up to Intel HD 520
Integrated Intel graphics
Memory:
Up to 8GB DDR3L
@ 1,600MHz
Up to 4GB DDR3L
@ 1,600MHz
Storage:
128GB SSD
192GB SSD
256GB SSD
16GB eMMC
Connectivity:
Wireless N
Bluetooth 4.0
Wireless N
Bluetooth 4.0
Battery:
42 Watt hour
42 Watt hour
Webcam:
720p
720p
Ports:
1x HDMI 1.4
2x USB 3.0
1x SD card reader
1x Ethernet port
1x HDMI 1.4
2x USB 3.0
1x SD card reader
Size:
11.81 x 8.27 x 0.88 inches
11.81 x 8.27 x 0.88 inches
Weight:
Starting at 3.3 pounds
Starting at 3.3 pounds

As for what the new ThinkPad 11e and ThinkPad Yoga 11e models will provide, here is what Lenovo offers in the details department:

• The latest Intel processors.
• Brighter screens.
• Gorilla glass protection.
• A water-resistant keyboard.
• New and improved mechanically anchored keys.
• Up to 10 hours of battery life.
• Yoga 11e comes with a pen supporting Windows Ink.

Next, we have the upcoming N23 Chromebooks that will be served up in traditional clamshell and convertible “Yoga” flavors. Lenovo said the N23 Yoga Chromebook will be the company’s very first Chromebook with an ARM-based processor. That means the device will be optimized for Android apps sold in the Google Play Store even though all Chromebooks launching in 2017 and thereafter will work just fine with Android apps.

“Simple to set-up and manage, both N23 Chromebooks offer students a personalized user experience simply by signing in with their Google Chrome ID while teachers and IT administrators have peace of mind and ultimate flexibility with a web-based management console,” Lenovo said.

Here are the N23 Chromebook highlights:

• Traditional clamshell and Yoga flavors.
• Reinforced ports and hinges.
• Mechanically anchored keys.
• Water-resistant keyboard.
• 10 hours of battery life.

Finally, we have the Lenovo N24 convertible notebook based on Windows 10. Given it won’t be made available until sometime around this summer, the company revealed very little about its details. However, what we know is that it will sport an 11.6-inch IPS screen that can rotate a full 360 degrees. This screen will support 10-point touch input and Lenovo’s Active Pen when the Lenovo N24 arrives later this year.