New York’s Citi Bikes are getting laser safety lights

Cyclists have to be wary of everything in big cities, even robotic cars. To help its sharing-service users, Citi Bike in New York is outfitting 250 bicycles with “Laserlight” safety lights from UK company Blaze. They project a bright green bicycle outline 20 feet ahead, effectively giving you a personal bike lane symbol. That helps alert motorists, pedestrians and other cyclists of your presence 30 percent more often than without them, Blaze says.

According to the New York Post, the 250 lights are just a pilot program, due to end mid-March. By the end of the year, however, all 6,000 bikes will be equipped with the lights. “By incorporating Blaze’s lights into the bikes, we aim to keep New Yorkers on foot, behind the wheel and riding a Citi Bike safer,” Citi Bike operator Motivate’s CEO told the Post.

It’s not the first time the tech has been tried. In London, UK, the “Boris Bikes” service did an identical trial in 2015, and ended up installing Blaze Laserlights on all 11,500 of its Santander bikes. A study by London’s mass transportation service found that Laserlights made them up to 30 percent more visible to trucks, buses and vans. The units retail to consumers in the US for $200, or £125 in the UK.

Via: Gothamist

Source: NY Post

Peter Thiel ‘Confirms’ the ‘Age of Apple is Over,’ But Says It’s Not Tim Cook’s Fault

In a “Confirm or Deny” feature by The New York Times this week, PayPal co-founder and venture capitalist Peter Thiel “confirmed” that “the age of Apple is over” based on his belief that smartphones will lack further innovation.

The age of Apple is over.

Confirm. We know what a smartphone looks like and does. It’s not the fault of Tim Cook, but it’s not an area where there will be any more innovation.

While the iPhone has become a familiar product as it turns ten, which perhaps makes it less exciting to some, to say smartphones are not an area where there will be any more innovation will certainly fuel a debate. And, of course, while the iPhone is Apple’s most profitable product, it’s not its only.

Thiel’s comment can be argued one way or the other, but it does raise the question of what Apple’s next “one more thing” will be after annual iPhone sales declined for the first time amid an uncharacteristically down year for Apple—perhaps something in the augmented reality or electric vehicle spaces? Will this be the year Apple pushes deeper into artificial intelligence with Siri and an Echo-like device?

Apple chief executive Tim Cook has routinely teased about what’s around the corner. Last year, he said Apple has “great innovation in the pipeline,” including “things you can’t live without that you just don’t know you need today.” Likewise, he told employees last month that Apple has “great desktops in our roadmap,” and earlier this week he said “the best is yet to come” for iPhone.

Tag: Tim Cook
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Opera Neon turns your web browser into a mini desktop

As much as modern desktop web browsers can do, their basic concept is stuck in a rut. It’s not really designed for the way many people use the web, such as chatting while you surf. Opera wants to climb out of that hole, and it’s trying an unusual approach to make that happen: it’s launching Opera Neon, a separate “concept” browser that shows where software could go. It’s much more visual, with an uncluttered look, tabs and shortcuts as bubbles and a side control bar that largely gets out of your way. However, the real fun starts when you want to juggle multiple sites — this is more of an intelligent desktop than your usual web client.

If you want to have two pages running side by side, it’s relatively easy: you drag one of your open tabs to the top of the window, creating a split view much like what you see in Windows or the multi-window modes on mobile devices. Also, Neon acknowledges that your browser can frequently double as a media player. You can listen to tunes in the background, or pop out a video in order to switch websites while you watch. These aren’t completely novel concepts all by themselves, but it’s rare to see all of them in a browser at the same time.

There are two more perks that you might appreciate if you’re a power user. A smart tab system surfaces frequently used tabs, while a quick “snap” feature captures screenshots of websites for a gallery. If you’re the sort who regularly wants to share photos and quotes in chat, this might be your pick.

Neon is available now for both Mac and Windows users. Don’t expect it to replace the standard Opera browser, though. Some of its features should cross over in the spring, but this is really a separate experiment to see which ideas stick. You’ll most likely want to give this a try if you either do a lot of web-based multitasking or just feel that your existing browser choices are a bit stale.

Source: Opera

New DoE guidelines stand for scientific integrity over politics

At a time when scientific facts are frequently disputed for political reasons, the Department of Energy is updating its policy to ensure the “protection of scientific integrity.” That quote comes from a Medium post by US Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz that lays out why we need accurate, unbiased science and three points for the department’s policy going forward:

• Energy Department scientists are able to express their opinions.

• Energy Department scientists must get the opportunity to review Department statements about their work.

• Energy Department officials should not and will not ask scientists to tailor their work to particular conclusions.

As mentioned by The Verge and Nature, the revised guidelines arrive alongside concerns about appointments by the President-elect that have a troubling connection to science. His incoming energy secretary has previously said he’d like to shut the department down, but these new regulations would require Rick Perry to appoint an independent Scientific Integrity Official to handle complaints (like the kind you’d get after the coverup of an accident at a secret lab in Hawkins, Indiana).

The Union of Concerned Scientists notes the department has been working on the revised policy for years, pointing out an incident where a DOE scientist working at Los Alamos appeared to have been fired for a scientific paper he wrote on his own time. It will be up to the incoming administration to implement these new policies, and we’ll have to wait and see if they try to roll any of the changes back. As it stands, they could be the only thing protecting employees working on issues like climate change or other politically charged topics. You can read the new rules yourself here (PDF).

Via: The Verge

Source: DOE Scientific Integrity Policy (PDF), Ernest Moniz (Medium)

Report: Fitbit tried to buy wearable arch-rival Jawbone

Jawbone is clearly struggling, having scaled fitness tracker production way back and reportedly not paying a customer service provider. Part of its problems stem from a protracted legal dispute with FitBit, but according to the Financial Times, Jawbone’s arch-rival actually tried to buy it last year. Fitbit offered to acquire Jawbone’s assets and settle any legal battles, but the deal reportedly fell through because the price was too low for Jawbone and its backers.

Jawbone was valued at up to $1.5 billion at the beginning of 2016, but Fitbit reportedly only offered a fraction of that. The companies battled back and forth in court throughout the year, with Jawbone losing a patent case in May, but prevailing in a similar one in July. The company has accused Fitbit of trying to bleed it dry via litigation and is still pursuing corporate espionage charges, despite a setback last summer.

The fact that the smartwatch and fitness tracker sector is hurting right now isn’t helping Jawbone, either. The company is said to be pivoting from fitness trackers to medical wearables, and is seeking FDA approval so it can sell them through US insurers. Meanwhile, it has stopped looking for a buyer and is close to finding a new investor, the FT says.

Fitbit, meanwhile, is taking advantage of a its rivals’ problems to buy them up for a song. It recently snapped up Kickstarter darling Pebble at a steeply reduce price and and also acquired Vector, a wearable company founded by former Citizen executives. However, it only purchased the firms for their employees, IP and software and plans to discontinue all products.

Source: Financial Times (paywall)

Telegram updates desktop app with new look

In the midst of (yet another) security scare, Telegram has updated its desktop app. The new app (version 1.0) features a thorough redesign, bringing the experience more in line with Google’s Material Design aesthetic, complete with animations and support for themes.

Version 1.0 also supports deleting messages from the company’s servers, a feature that was already available in the mobile app. (Previously, deleting a message from a chat on the desktop would only remove it from the device you’re using.) Like editing, deletion only works on recently sent messages.

While the update is a welcome one, the messaging service, which offers server-client encrypted messaging and end-to-end encrypted private chats, is currently answering some difficult question regarding its security standards. Telegram has been maligned for relying on its own security protocols, rather than the many tried-and-tested options available.

More recently, an unverified intelligence document published by BuzzFeed and reported on extensively with regards to President-elect Trump and Russia’s impact on the US election, flagged Telegram as being compromised by Russia’s state security agency. Specifically, it says “the FSB now successfully had cracked this communications software and therefore it was no longer secure to use.”

Telegram called the report a “scare story,” and said it believes it’s mostly likely fake, or possibly refers to SMS interception in accounts not protected by 2-step verification, an attack that was reported earlier this year. Many of the other allegations in the document, dated July 2015, have been proven inaccurate, or impossible to verify.

Separately, cryptography expert Nadim Kobeissi, who has been a perrenial critic of Telegram, detailed another attack vector: a vulnerability in the way the service deals with keys. Telegram, again, disputed the findings, this time directly responding to Kobeissi on Twitter, saying that the chat would not work if an attack of this type happened. Kobeissi has yet to respond.

“To this day, no ways of undermining Telegram’s encryption have been discovered,” the service said in a blog post. “We are continuously working with our worldwide community of developers and security specialists to keep it this way.” Whatever happens, the app is way more pretty than it used to be, and that’s all that matters in the end. Right?

Source: Telegram (security blog), (app changelog)

Opera Debuts New ‘Opera Neon’ Concept Browser

Opera today showcased its first ever concept browser, codenamed Opera Neon. Built on the same browser engine as the standard Opera browser, Neon is designed to focus primarily on content.

Opera Neon includes a new user interface that consists of a start page using the user’s current desktop background image, a sidebar with a video player, image gallery, and download manager, and a visual tab bar that makes it easier to switch between tabs and tell which tab is active.

There’s also a built-in “intelligent system” that manages tabs, with frequently used tabs listed at the top and the less used tabs being relegated to the bottom.

A pop-out video option lets users watch videos while viewing other web pages, and a snap to gallery feature lets users take a screenshot and crop any part of a webpage, saving it for later use. With an included split screen mode, it’s also possible to view two web pages simultaneously, side by side.

Opera Neon won’t replace the current Opera browser, but some of its features will eventually be added to Opera. Both Mac and Windows users can download a free version of Opera Neon to test.

Tag: Opera browser
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Apple Plans to Launch Original TV Shows Comparable to ‘Westworld’ and ‘Stranger Things’ By End of 2017

Apple is building a “significant” business centered around creating original, scripted television shows and possibly even movies, according to a new report by The Wall Street Journal. The content would be made available on Apple Music, falling in line with previous reports and accompanying already-announced projects for the music streaming service, including Carpool Karaoke and Vital Signs.

Apple executives have told Hollywood that the new original content will launch by the end of 2017, according to the new report. In terms of specific genres, HBO’s Westworld and Netflix’s Stranger Things were both used as comparisons for what Apple is aiming to produce on Apple Music. These proposed series and movies “don’t have any particular relationship to music,” unlike Carpool Karaoke and Vital Signs.

Rumors about Apple meeting with Hollywood executives to create original TV shows for Apple Music or iTunes have existed since last year, and now Apple is even looking into producing original films for the service, “though those plans are more preliminary,” according to people familiar with the matter.

The company is said to have been in talks with producers over the past few months about purchasing the rights to scripted television programs, as well as seeking out marketing people to come on board and promote the new content. The move is looked at as a way for Apple to gain an edge in its competition against Spotify, rather than become a streaming contender alongside Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Because it is looking at just a handful of carefully selected shows, and potentially films, it doesn’t appear Apple is preparing to spend the hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars it would need to spend annually to become a direct competitor to Netflix Inc., Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Video or premium cable networks.

Rather, it would escalate the arms race between Apple Music and Spotify, which both offer essentially the same catalog of tens of millions of songs, by adding other content that could distinguish Apple’s service.

Although most of Apple’s plans are still steeped in secrecy, the company has reportedly told producers an advantage it hopes to offer is that it would share its viewer and demographic data on the people who watch the new shows. Netflix has remained infamously private about the specific number of viewers who watch its streaming shows, making it hard to tell what is a successful launch or not, “which has been a source of contention among some in Hollywood.”

Last Summer, Eddy Cue said that Apple is “not in the business of trying to create TV shows” when asked about the future of the company and its past relationships with Hollywood, where it once spoke with network programmers to get a live-streaming TV bundle launched before ultimately shelving the plans. At the time, Cue said that Apple would “help” producers whenever it had the chance and that any TV project would serve as “complimentary to the things we’re doing at Apple Music.”

Tag: Apple Music
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One Drop Blood Glucose Monitoring Kit for iPhone Launches on Apple.com

Health startup One Drop recently launched its iOS-compatible One Drop Chrome Blood Glucose Monitoring Kit on Apple.com for $99.95. Approved by the FDA and CE in Europe, the kit includes a Bluetooth-enabled blood glucose meter, a chrome lancing device, test strips, and a vegan leather carry case.

The blood glucose meter can read results “in just five seconds,” transmitting the data to the One Drop iOS app [Direct Link] that users can download on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple Watch. One Drop’s lancing device has custom depth settings to provide the right amount of pressure on a user-by-user basis in order to draw “a perfect drop every time.” To keep up on compatible test strips, users can subscribe to One Drop Premium for a monthly $39.95 fee.

With Apple’s energetic and consistent focus on health, One Drop provides a premium product that not only meshes well with Apple’s design sensibility, but aligns well with their desire to empower users to take control of their health.

Its new Chrome hardware connects to One Drop’s iOS, watchOS, and Android apps, and have full HealthKit and CareKit integration, allowing you to sync data from other health apps (e.g., CGMs, bluetooth meters, food & activity trackers) and share your data with your Care Team.

One Drop was one of four apps to launch with Apple’s CareKit platform in 2016, including fertility tracker Glow Nurture, maternity app Glow Baby, and depression medication tracker Start. CareKit allows app developers to create integrated software that helps patients and doctors to better track and manage medical conditions.

On Apple.com, the One Drop Monitoring Kit is available for both store pickup and home shipping, with delivery dates listed as early as tomorrow, January 13. For more information on One Drop, check out the company’s website here.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch Series 2, watchOS 3, iPhone 7
Tags: CareKit, One Drop
Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Neutral)
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Samsung and LG may launch foldable phones this year

It’s time to get excited about foldable screens.

After showcasing concepts for several years, it looks like Samsung may finally launch a phone with a foldable screen later this year. Citing anonymous sources, The Korea Herald states that Samsung is getting ready to launch 100,000 units of a phone that unfurls into a 7-inch tablet sometime in the third quarter of 2017. Apparently, Samsung was already working on fold-in screens — panels that fold inward — and it wasn’t a major challenge for the vendor to switch to screens that fold outward.

The publication also notes that while Samsung doesn’t face any technical hurdles in bringing a foldable phone to market, it is yet to take a final decision on the matter as the company is unsure of “marketability and profitability” of such a handset. It looks like a decision will be taken after Samsung finishes reshuffling execs in its information technology and mobile business units.

Meanwhile, LG is also slated to come up with its own foldable phone in the fourth quarter. LG has been working on fold-out panels for nearly three years, with the company said to be technologically superior when compared to its South Korean rival. However, unlike Samsung — which plans to use its foldable tech into its own phone — LG may license its fold-out panels to the likes of Apple or Huawei. Either way, 2017 could be the year when foldable screens go mainstream.