Super Bowl 51 will stream for free on Fox Sports Go
The Super Bowl has been streaming for awhile now, but watching the commercials (arguably the best part) has been hit or miss in the past. Remember when all that streamed was the game? Yep, that was pretty terrible. This year, however, Fox Sports has a new plan in place: showing local commercials from some 170 affiliate stations, in addition to the national commercials.
You’ll be able to watch the big game via the Fox Sports Go app or on the Fox Sports Go website come February 5th, and best of all it’ll be free. That’s right, no need for a pay-tv login this time. More than that, you’ll be able to watch via Amazon Fire, Apple TV, Android TV, Chromecast and Xbox One in addition to Android, Fire tablets, iOS devices and Windows. Even if you’re without a cable subscription or a means of watching over-the-air TV, you’ll still be able to catch gems like the one below.
Via: Deadline
Source: Fox Sports
FTC sues Qualcomm over anti-competitive practices
The U.S. is the latest country to target Qualcomm over anti-competitive behavior. The FTC announced this afternoon that it was suing the company over monopolistic tactics around its baseband processor business — the hardware that smartphones and tablets rely on for network connectivity. In particular, the FTC claims Qualcomm “engaged in exclusionary conduct that taxes its competitors’ baseband processor sales, reduces competitors’ ability and incentive to innovate, and raises prices paid by consumers for cell phones and tablets,” according to a court filing.
The lawsuit comes after South Korea charged Qualcomm $854 million for its patent licensing practices, and China fined it $954 million after an antitrust probe of its own. The FTC found that Qualcomm threatened the supply of baseband processors to customers that didn’t agree to its patent licensing terms. The company reportedly pushes a licensing “tax” on companies when they purchase baseband processors might by competing firms.
Additionally, Qualcomm also refuses to license its patents to competitors, which goes against its commitment to “FRAND” (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) licensing tactics. And, perhaps most damning, Qualcomm also offered reduced royalty fees to Apple in exchange for using its baseband processors exclusively.
At this point, Qualcomm’s chips can be found in the vast majority of mobile devices. Its Snapdragon SoCs (system-on-chips) power most high-end Android phones. Moving forward, it aims to be just about everywhere, including the IoT and connected car business.
Source: FTC
Obama pardons Stuxnet leak source James Cartwright
Chelsea Manning isn’t the only source of online leaks to get a new lease on life. President Obama has pardoned General James Cartwright, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI when it investigated leaks that revealed details of Stuxnet, the US-backed malware that sabotaged Iran’s nuclear program. He had denied slipping out classified details to two New York Times reporters (including book author David Sanger) in a 2012 interview with the Bureau, only to be caught out later on. He had been facing up to 5 years in prison and was due to be sentenced the same day as the pardon.
At the moment, it’s not certain why Cartwright is receiving the pardon. He was the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from his nomination in 2007 through to his retirement from Marine Corps service in 2011, but he wasn’t Obama’s golden boy. Cartwright was denied the top Chairman spot in 2011 in part because of questions surrounding his staff management practices, including an alleged (though never punished) “unduly familiar relationship” with a female Captain.
One theory is that the outgoing White House administration wants to put a lid on discussion of Stuxnet. The Washington Post claimed that the investigation into Cartwright ran aground when officials realized they might have to confirm details of the malware in order to secure a conviction. That would have been particularly problematic at the time, when the US was negotiating the eventual Iranian nuclear shutdown agreement — did it really want to admit to a cyberattack at such a critical moment? We wouldn’t rule out any motivations at this point, but the guilty plea and pardon might spare the government from disclosing secrets.
Via: Charlie Savage (Twitter)
Source: White House
Seinfeld’s ‘Comedians in Cars’ moves to Netflix this year
Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee is jumping from Sony’s Crackle streaming service to one that people actually watch: Netflix. Late this year, the show will debut with 24 new episodes according to Variety. What’s more, 59 back episodes of the Emmy nominated show will arrive on the streaming service as well, and there are plans for another new run of episodes for next year.
If you’re more a fan of Seinfeld’s stand-up work there’s even more good news. Following the multi-million dollar deals Netflix signed with Chris Rock and (presumably) Dave Chappelle, Seinfeld will film two new specials that will be exclusive to the service. Not too shabby for a guy who made us all laugh about “nothing.” Of course, if you want to watch the eponymous show that made Seinfeld a household name, you still need a Hulu subscription.
Source: Variety
‘The Flame in the Flood’ arrives today on PlayStation 4
When it was released last year, The Flame in the Flood garnered a lot of attention for its big name developers and unique take on the wilderness survival genre. Today, PlayStation 4 players who have been missing out the experience will finally get to take a trip up the game’s fictionalized Mississippi river and through a dystopic version of the American South.
Announced last month, the PS4 version was ported by Curve Digital and arrives as The Flame in the Flood: Complete Edition, which includes Director Commentary from game studio Molasses Flood’s “team of AAA refugees,” a new dynamic theme, new system avatars and a few gameplay tweaks just for Sony’s console. The studio’s experienced talent have some of the biggest titles in gaming under their collective belts — including BioShock Infinite, Halo and Rock Band — but The Flame in the Flood stands apart with its indie game ethos, crafting system and fast-moving exploration of a completely realized post-apocalyptic world. It doesn’t hurt that Chuck Ragan’s lively alt-country soundtrack was one of 2016’s best either.
The Flame in the Flood runs a reasonable $14.99 on PS4, but players will get a couple bucks off for the launch. And, of course, it’s still available for PC and Xbox One as well.
Source: PlayStation Store
Verizon prevents Galaxy Note 7 holdouts from making calls
When Verizon rolled out an update that disabled charging on remaining Galaxy Note 7 devices, that was all she wrote for the fire-prone smartphone, right? Apparently not. The carrier informs Fortune that there are still “thousands” of people still using the Note 7 on its network, and that it’s taking some extreme measures to make those users reconsider their ways. Most notably, it’s going to reroute their calls — anything that isn’t an emergency call will go straight to Verizon customer service. Big Red also says it may bill Note 7 owners for the price of the phone, which could cut especially deep when those who’ve already returned their phones actually received money back.
Those affected will certainly know that something’s up. Owners are reporting that they’ve received text messages telling them that their phone will stop working in late January (the dates vary), and that they’ll be charged if they don’t return the phone within as little as 5 days. It’s not certain that Verizon can charge customers under US recall rules, but the provider appears bent on trying.
It’s not immediately clear how these owners managed to evade the charging update. We’ve reached out to Verizon to see if it can elaborate on what’s happening, and you can look below for its current statement acknowledging the holdouts. However, not all Note 7 users are keeping their devices out of stubbornness. Verizon is asking users to return the phones in their original boxes, but that’s not always an option — the carrier may be leaving some customers no choice but to pay for the phone even if they do take it in. While there are certainly people who outright refuse to turn in their handsets (we’ve seen a few hoping to spoof phone IDs), you can’t paint all of them with the same broad brush.
“In spite of our best efforts, there are still customers using the recalled phones who have not returned or exchanged their Note 7 to the point of purchase. The recalled Note 7s pose a safety risk to our customers and those around them.”
Source: Fortune
Chris Lattner Says Opportunity to Work on Tesla’s Ambitious Self-Driving Efforts Was ‘Irresistible’
Earlier this month, Swift creator Chris Lattner announced he will be stepping down as director of Apple’s Development Tools department to lead Tesla’s Autopilot engineering team as VP of Autopilot Software.
Lattner did not explain the reason for the move, but he later denied a report claiming he “felt constrained” due to Apple’s culture of secrecy. So, we decided to reach out to him to learn about his true motivations.
As it turns out, Lattner told MacRumors the answer is actually very simple: he is ready to move on to something new.
I’ve been writing code for more than 30 years, and 16 of those years have been in the developer tools space. I love it, but I am ready to move on to something else. Autopilot is clearly incredibly important to the world because of its ability to save people’s lives (and increase convenience). It is also a very, very hard technology problem and my experience building large scale software and team building is useful. Of course, I’ve also been a huge Tesla fan for some time.
He added it was “a very difficult decision,” but noted the opportunity to work with Tesla’s Autopilot team was “irresistible.”
This was a very difficult decision, because I care deeply about the technology and people at Apple and because I could see myself staying there for many more years. In the end though, the opportunity to dive into a completely new area and work with the amazing Tesla Autopilot team was irresistible.
At Tesla, Lattner will help the company achieve one of its biggest goals: fully self-driving vehicles. As of October 2016, Tesla said all vehicles produced in its factory, including the Model 3, have the hardware needed for “full self-driving capability at a safety level substantially greater than that of a human driver,” and it’s now only a matter of time before the technology is enabled.
Tesla:
All you will need to do is get in and tell your car where to go. If you don’t say anything, the car will look at your calendar and take you there as the assumed destination or just home if nothing is on the calendar. Your Tesla will figure out the optimal route, navigate urban streets (even without lane markings), manage complex intersections with traffic lights, stop signs and roundabouts, and handle densely packed freeways with cars moving at high speed. When you arrive at your destination, simply step out at the entrance and your car will enter park seek mode, automatically search for a spot and park itself. A tap on your phone summons it back to you.
Tesla Autopilot is semi-autonomous in its current state for tasks such as steering and parking. Tesla’s second-generation hardware suite has eight cameras that provide 360 degrees of visibility around the car at up to 250 meters of range. Twelve ultrasonic sensors and a forward-facing radar allow for detection of objects, even through heavy rain, fog, dust, and the car ahead.
Tesla remains committed to enabling full self-driving capabilities by the end of the year, but the process of gaining regulatory approval, which Tesla said may vary widely by jurisdiction, will presumably be a long and challenging process. Once approved, however, the technology will truly change cars forever, and it’s easy to imagine why Lattner would want to be part of that change.
At Apple, he led a group of about 200 people responsible for Swift, Xcode, Swift Playgrounds, Instruments, CPU and GPU compilers, and low-level tools, among other things. These tools are used both within Apple and by third-party developers targeting the iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS software platforms.
Lattner was hired at Apple in 2005 to bring his LLVM Compiler Infrastructure to production quality for use in its products. He then started working on the Swift programming language in 2010, and it became a key focus of the Development Tools team in 2013. Swift was ultimately introduced at WWDC 2014.
Swift now has a large community of developers contributing to it since it became open source in late 2015, so Lattner is in a good position to pursue a new opportunity without jeopardizing future development of the language. His duties will shift to Ted Kremenek, who had already been overseeing Swift for some time.
Lattner said Ted has been “one of the quiet but incredible masterminds” behind Swift, which has an “incredible future ahead of it.”
Tags: Swift, Tesla
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iOS 10.2’s New ‘TV’ App Doesn’t Work With Some Videos Ripped From DVDs
In iOS 10.2, released on December 12, Apple introduced the new “TV” app, which serves as an Apple-designed TV guide that aims to simplify the television watching experience and help users discover new TV and movie content.
In the United States, the TV app replaces the standard “Videos” app and serves as a television hub on iOS devices, but it appears the new app doesn’t work well with content that’s been ripped from DVDs.
According to an ongoing discussion on Apple’s Support Communities that dates back to December, some customers who have videos ripped from DVDs are no longer able to view them in the TV app. The same videos previously worked fine in the now-replaced Videos app. A user who is having issues describes the problem:
Prior to iOS 10.2 I was able to view video I had ripped on the Videos app in iOS. The process I used was to rip the video and then import them into iTunes. Then I synced my iPhone with iTunes and my movies were download and viewed using the Videos app.
iOS 10.2 no longer includes the Video app and the new TV app will not allow me to watch these ripped videos. Does someone have a solution or am I simply missing something?
Other iPhone users have been unable to sync home videos and other content to their devices with the current version of iTunes, receiving a message that movies or TV shows can’t be synced because the Videos app is not installed.
Some users have been able to get around the problem with already-transferred videos by using the TV widget on their iOS devices, which apparently causes the TV app to display the ripped videos after the widget is activated. Others can get the ripped videos to play by setting the videos to be “Home Videos.”
That the widget allows some users to access their videos suggests this is perhaps a bug that will be resolved in a future update, but it is not entirely clear what’s going on with the TV app and content acquired outside of the iTunes Stores.
Affected users who want to get non-Apple video content onto their iOS devices will need to use a third-party solution like Infuse or VLC.
Related Roundup: iOS 10
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FTC Targeting Qualcomm for Forcing Apple to Use its Modems
The United States Federal Trade Commission today filed a complaint against Qualcomm, accusing the company of violating the FTC Act by using anticompetitive tactics to remain the dominant supplier of baseband processors (aka LTE chips) for smartphones.
According to the FTC, Qualcomm uses its position and its portfolio of patents to impose “onerous and anticompetitive supply and licensing terms on cell phone manufacturers,” negatively impacting its competitors.
The complaint specifically addresses a deal with Apple in which Qualcomm required Apple to exclusively use its modems from 2011 to 2016 in exchange for lower patent royalties.
Qualcomm precluded Apple from sourcing baseband processors from Qualcomm’s competitors from 2011 to 2016. Qualcomm recognized that any competitor that won Apple’s business would become stronger, and used exclusivity to prevent Apple from working with and improving the effectiveness of Qualcomm’s competitors.
Up until 2016, Apple only used Qualcomm modems in its line of iPhones, deviating from the norm with the iPhone 7. Both Intel and Qualcomm modems were adopted for the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus, leading to some compatibility and performance discrepancies.
Qualcomm is also accused of refusing to license its standard-essential patents to competing suppliers and implementing a “no license, no chips” tax policy where it supplies its baseband processors only when manufacturers agree to Qualcomm’s preferred licensing terms, causing smartphone makers to pay higher royalties to Qualcomm when a competitor’s modem chips are used.
The FTC has asked the court to order Qualcomm to put a stop to its anticompetitive conduct and take action to “restore competitive conditions.”
Tags: FTC, Qualcomm
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