BBC iPlayer will reinvent itself by 2020 to be “number one online TV service in the UK”
BBC director general Lord Hall has said he plans to totally reinvent the BBC iPlayer by 2020 to increase its reach and become a “must-visit destination”. One way Lord Hall plans to update the service to make it more popular is to make some programmes available in their entirety on iPlayer, even before they’re released on television.
- You’ll need to pay for BBC iPlayer from 2017
If the plans were to be introduced, it would make iPlayer a bigger rival to Netflix and Amazon Video, services that release full series in one go so customers can binge-watch them.
Lord Hall said the reasons for the changes would be because the “media landscape has changed beyond all recognition – it’s more global and more competitive”. He added his overall goal is for the iPlayer to be “the number one online TV service in the UK”.
The BBC iPlayer is already on its way to achieving more viewers, as 2016 was its best year to date with 243 million monthly requests on average. As well as making box sets of TV shows available to binge-watch, Lord Hall wants to run more “slow news”, which would involve more in-depth analysis of breaking news and topics. Hall wants to introduce these new changes by 2020, but by 2022 he wants the iPlayer to be “irresistible” to all audiences.
BBC iPlayer has already announced changes in a bid to close the “iPlayer loophole” that many viewers were exploiting. From this year, you’ll need to pay the £145.50 license fee in order to be able to watch catch-up TV through the service.
The Morning After: Wednesday, January 11th 2017
Welcome to hump day, and we have a mixture of good and bad news. Read about how a smart breast pump proved that CES can give us useful gadgets that solve real problems and the cancellation of a highly-anticipated Xbox title that let you fight alongside a dragon buddy. We also reported from the first million-dollar e-race, where Formula E’s pro drivers were bested by the world’s best simulator racers.
No dragon companion for you.
Xbox One’s ‘Scalebound’ gets canceled
Scalebound is no more. Platinum’s Xbox exclusive has been canceled by Microsoft, killing the dream of a Devil May Cry–meets–Last Guardian mashup. This won’t reflect well on developer Platinum. Since 2014, when the excellent Bayonetta 2 was released on Wii U, the company has put out a string of mediocre games, including Transformers: Devastation and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan, which were all decent, but far from extraordinary. The studio’s reputation will now rest its next big-budget title: ‘Nier: Automata’. Here’s hoping gamers like female androids that swing giant swords. (Spoiler: they probably do.)
PEOTUSChoose Today’s Trump news
While the Senate considered the President-elect’s choice for Attorney General, a pair of other stories made the headlines. In one, vaccine denier Robert F. Kennedy said Donald Trump asked him to chair a commission on vaccine safety, which the transition team later denied. In the other, both Trump and Obama have apparently been briefed by US intelligence on an unconfirmed report, allegedly compiled by a former British spy, claiming there was information shared between Russia and the Trump campaign. The document, released in full by Buzzfeed, also claims that Russia has compromising information about Trump which it may try to use against him.
POTUS
Obama’s exit
In the final days of Barack Obama’s presidency, Science has published his essay titled “The irreversible momentum of clean energy.” That same optimism was reflected during his farewell address in Chicago, where the President implored us to stop arguing with strangers on the internet, and instead talk to them in real life.
Even e-races have upsets
Who would win if you pitted the entire Formula E roster against some pro simulator racers?
At the final day of CES, the organizers of Formula E offered a million-dollar prize pot for 30 simulator competitors, made up of 20 professional racers and the best sim drivers in the world. The race was not without some bumps along the way, however…
eSports aren’t going anywhere.
Lionsgate will make another move about eSports
Film and television production company Lionsgate has invested an undisclosed amount into Immortals, a relatively new eSports organization with teams competing in the likes of League of Legends, Overwatch and Super Smash Bros. This isn’t Lionsgate’s first foray into the rich new world of professional gaming. In May, Lionsgate announced it was partnering with the Electronic Sports League and Pilgrim Media on an eSports television show — turns out, that will be a reality program all about the competitive side of Halo 5.
Building something that solves a real problem is a good place to start.
How Willow the smart breast pump won CES
Willow, solves a real problem in the world. The device slides into a nursing mother’s bra and allows for hands-free pumping. At CES, it won two of our Best of CES awards and generated press coverage across the internet. 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. It’s perhaps 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.
But wait, there’s more…
- LG’s G6 phone will feature an 18:9 screen aspect ratio
- Fitbit swallows up another smartwatch startup, this time it’s Vector
- AI friends will keep passengers engaged when future cars drive themselves
- The Steadicam Volt handheld gimbal is up for grabs on Kickstarter for $139
- Facebook’s diversity push hampered by its own hiring practices
Cloudflare’s transparency report reveals secret FBI subpoena
Tech titans like Google and Apple aren’t the only ones that receive government requests for customer information — lesser-known companies like Cloudflare get them, as well. The service, which makes websites load faster, has revealed that it’s been fighting a national security letter (NSL) from the FBI since 2013 in its latest transparency report. NSLs are subpoenas the government hands out when it wants to gather information for national security purposes. It also comes with a gag order, which is why the company wasn’t able to include the information in previous transparency reports.
The NSL directed Cloudflare to provide the FBI with the names, addresses and the transaction records of certain customers. Although the company removed the request’s details in the subpoena it published, it reportedly has some pretty controversial customers. In 2015, hacker collective Anonymous accused the service of doing business with ISIS-related websites. Cloudflare protects its customers from distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, preventing the hacker group from launching these against targets
Instead of complying to the NSL, though, Cloudflare teamed up with the EFF to bring the matter to court. The FBI rescinded the request in July 2013, five months after the company received the subpoena. However, Cloudflare had to fight the gag order in court for years. According to the EFF, the FBI lifted it in the end, because it’s required to periodically review active gag orders under the USA Freedom Act of 2015. That’s not always a good thing, the EFF says, because it leads to selective transparency. The organization says:
“Make no mistake: this process is irredeemably flawed. It fails to place on the FBI the burden of justifying NSL gag orders in a timely fashion to a neutral third party, namely a federal court. Nevertheless, Cloudflare’s fight demonstrates that it is not unreasonable to require the FBI to relinquish some of its customary secrecy in national security cases.”
You can read the company’s full transparency report for the second half of 2016 on its website.
Never have I been prouder to represent a corporation than I am of @Cloudflare and @CREDOMobile in this NSL challenge https://t.co/HG7rGrKhUG
— Nate Cardozo (@ncardozo) January 10, 2017
Thank you @ncardozo and the whole team at @EFF! https://t.co/ORNSxCAmNb
— Matthew Prince (@eastdakota) January 10, 2017
Ever wanted to see what a National Security Letter looks like? Here’s the NSL that the FBI sent @Cloudflare: https://t.co/kerUS9A7vy
— Nate Cardozo (@ncardozo) January 10, 2017
Source: EFF, Cloudflare (1), (2)
U.S. Aviation Authority Lifts Note7 Ban as Samsung Prepares to Relaunch Galaxy Brand
U.S. airlines will no longer have to make a pre-boarding notification to passengers that the Samsung Galaxy Note7 is prohibited on aircraft, it was announced yesterday.
In a statement on its website, the Federal Aviation Administration said it was dropping the requirement because public awareness that the banned Note7 was a fire risk was deemed to have reached a sufficient level, thanks in part to extensive recall efforts by Samsung and smartphone providers.
The Department of Transportation removed the requirement for air carriers to specifically notify passengers about the Note7 phone immediately prior to boarding due to the high degree of public awareness of the ban since issuance of the emergency restriction/prohibition order, as well as the extensive efforts by Samsung and U.S. wireless providers to make all Note7 users aware the phone is recalled and banned from transport on U.S. aircraft.
Following the announcement, Samsung released a statement claiming that over 96 percent of Note 7 devices have been returned so far. U.S. carriers have sent out an end-of-life software update to handsets that remain in circulation, rendering the devices unable to charge. Meanwhile, Samsung has said it will release a report later this month detailing the results of its investigation into what caused some handsets to explode or catch fire while charging.
Samsung appears to have weathered the storm of last year’s Note7 debacle, after officially halting sales of the phone worldwide in early October and discontinuing the model. Despite Apple phones outselling Samsung phones two to one over the holiday period, iPhone 7’s lack of “compelling” features is said to have convinced most Galaxy Note7 owners to stay with Samsung.
Purported leaked image of the Galaxy S8 expected to launch in April (Image: Weibo)
According to one report on Tuesday, Samsung has refused to give up on the Galaxy Note name, due to the historical popularity of the brand in the “phablet” category, and a Note8 is currently being readied for launch later this year.
Samsung is currently focusing on the Spring launch of its flagship Galaxy S8, which is rumored to include a “Bixi” AI voice assistant – based on its acquisition of Viv – and is said to have a home button embedded in its edge-to-edge display. The company is reportedly aiming to ship 60 million S8 units by the end of the year.
Tags: Samsung, Galaxy Note 7, Galaxy S8
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Apple Teams Up With Security Firm to Bolster Encryption Across Its CareKit Medical Platform
Apple has partnered with security firm Tresorit so that developers using Apple’s CareKit platform will have access to increased privacy options (via Mashable).
Tresorit’s security technology, ZeroKit, will bring user authentication to patients and healthcare workers, while its end-to-end encryption smarts promise “zero knowledge” sharing of health data. The ZeroKit team announced the partnership in a blog post on Apple’s CareKit blog.
“Apple designed the iOS platform and CareKit with security at its core. When building apps where data is shared across devices and with other services, developers want to extend this security to the cloud. This is exactly what ZeroKit does.”
CareKit is Apple’s open-source platform aimed at making it easer for developers and health care professionals to build health apps via a number of integrations, like monitoring of medical symptoms, sending images of an injury, and keeping tabs on medication schedules.
CareKit also offers two-way benefits, as it not only helps doctors monitor patients but also allows patients to observe their progress over time. While patients won’t get to choose whether to apply ZeroKit’s encryption tools, the back-end integration will allow Apple’s platform to fall in line with state privacy rules around patient information.
Tags: privacy, CareKit
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HTC U Play: Release date, rumours and specs for HTC Alpine
HTC’s 2017 plans kicked off with a lot of talk about Ocean. First revealed in a concept video, the Ocean name expanded and was attached to a number of handsets – three handsets, in fact – all slated for launch in 2017.
The HTC Alpine name is fairly new compared to those Ocean names and it’s only a couple of our regular HTC leakers on Twitter that are pushing this name: @onleaks and @LlabTooFeR. Both have a respectable record, although one admitted that the HTC Alpine name came from an unconfirmed source.
HTC is going to release devices with following codenames: HTC Alpine, HTC Ocean Note and HTC E66 (HTC X10)…
— LlabTooFeR (@LlabTooFeR) 5 January 2017
It’s thought that this device will launch alongside the HTC U Ultra at the 12 January event, carrying the name HTC U Play. Here’s everything we know so far.
- HTC U Ultra: Release date, rumours, specs on HTC Ocean Note
HTC U Play: Design
When it comes to design, one of the things that has made 2017 different from previous years is the lack of solid phone photos from HTC. Not only has there been rumours of three devices – with some difference in codenames and a mysterious HTC Vive handset appearing – but there have been very few photos.
That leaves us slightly in the dark as to the design of the U Play. There’s no indication of where this fits into HTC’s line-up of devices either as the naming appears to be new, so it eschews previous family names like One or Desire.
Got it from same unverified source (see above) but I put it here anyway, again… ????#HTC Alpine = HTC U Play = 5.2″ display = no 3.5mm Jack
— OnLeaks (@OnLeaks) 6 January 2017
Rumours have suggested that the U Play is a smaller device launching alongside the U Ultra phablet and differing in just about every way. There’s a chance, of course, the U Ultra and U Play are versions of the same phone, but offering hardware differences. Currently, it’s not clear what the situation is.
That leaves us not knowing what the HTC U Play might offer, so the design might be a complete surprise – or it might look like the purported HTC U Ultra leaks.
One thing that has been mentioned is the lack of 3.5mm headphone socket, so it’s likely that you’ll be using USB Type-C for your audio.
One thing that hasn’t been mentioned is a video that’s cropped up from @evleaks. This pitches the whole U thing as a play to personalisation, through what looks like a promo video. In that video there’s a range of different textures and finishes to phones – chemical, fabric, litmus, and three devices. Sadly, those devices don’t match any other purported leaks – but we can’t help feeling this video is genuine and some clue to HTC’s 2017 plans.
HTC 2017? pic.twitter.com/ppONWlT5Mr
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) 8 January 2017
HTC U Play: Hardware and display specs
Like the design, there have been few specs mentioned for the HTC U Play. One fairly consistent rumour is that this is a 5.2-inch device, but firmly mid-range, suggesting it’s nothing like the U Ultra details that have leaked.
The display is said to be 5.2-inches with a 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution, for 423ppi. That might be the same size as the HTC 10, but it’s a drop in resolution, very much a mid-range offering.
#HTC – #HTCAlpine – HTC Alpine specs leaked https://t.co/W8lG7veL1o pic.twitter.com/Sztc6vIqX9
— /LEAKS (@Slashleaks) 10 January 2017
A newer source of leaks has share some specs that have surfaced from Weibo from @upleaks, a source that hasn’t been as prolific in recent times as it once was. This account also shared some specs for the HTC U Ultra, although those contained some discrepancies, so these are worth taking with a pinch of salt.
The HTC U Play is said to be powered by an octa-core MediaTek Helio P10 chipset, with 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage (presumably supported by microSD), and a front-mounted fingerprint scanner.
There’s very few sources to corroborate this information, however, so it’s difficult to judge if these are true by any measure. They are mid-range specs and may, perhaps, reflect a cheaper U product to be ranged alongside the Ultra in the way that Motorola tiers its phones – so the display size could be entirely wrong.
HTC U Play: Cameras
The HTC U Play is rumoured to come with a 16-megapixel rear camera and a 16-megapixel front camera. That’s perfectly feasible, although there are very few sources for this information, so it’s difficult to tell if it’s reliable.
The HTC U Ultra images that leaked appeared show a laser autofocus sensor alongside the lens, but that’s not been mentioned in any of the leaks so far.
That leaves us slightly in the dark about the HTC U Play cameras. If there’s a high resolution front-facing camera we can see that HTC will be using this as a social pitch for the “play” angle of this device, claiming you’ll be able to get great selfies of you and your friends.
HTC U Play: Software
There’s been nothing specifically said about the software loadout on the HTC U Play, but it can be assumed that it will be Android Nougat with HTC Sense. We wouldn’t expect a huge change from the build we’ve seen on the HTC 10.
Sadly, that’s about all we have to go on from a software angle.
HTC U Play: Release date
The HTC U Play, or HTC Alpine, is rumoured to be launching alongside the HTC U Ultra at the For U event on 12 January. This is one of the confirmed details that we do have: HTC is holding a launch event.
The timing is odd, coming so early in the year, but we can only imagine that HTC is trying to steal a march on rivals and get these devices to market before the main launches around the time of Mobile World Congress 2017.
It is all about U. Join us live 12 Jan 2017 (3AM EST/12AM PST) #BrilliantU https://t.co/JFTzcvpGHn pic.twitter.com/OXJCT6ciGs
— HTC (@htc) January 10, 2017
At the same time, we’re not entirely convinced by the specs and details that have surfaced on this handset, so there may at least be some surprises in store for us on launch day.
LA beats out SF to host George Lucas’ art museum
Unbeknownst to some, Los Angeles and San Francisco had been clashing for months on yet another front: Which would win the right to build an elaborate, expansive museum housing film ephemera and personal art collected by George Lucas. As is only proper for the nexus of cinema, Hollywood won the fight. Yes, the upcoming museum will feature choice souvenirs from the Star Wars franchise, but it aims to be a serious institution with the money to back it up. Lucas will allegedly front $1 billion himself in construction costs and art as well as the creation of a $400 million endowment fund.
The 275,000 sq ft building will sit in Exposition Park south of downtown, joining the California Science Center, Natural History Museum and California African American Museum. It will house over 10,000 paintings and illustrations including works by Rockwell, N.C. Wyeth and R. Crumb, according to The Los Angeles Times. Canny fans will note that the future site of the George Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is blocks away from the University of Southern California campus, where he studied as a young filmmaker. It’ll also be an hour-drive away from another sizable monument to his legacy when Disneyland’s upcoming Star Wars Land eventually opens.
Source: The Los Angeles Times
iFixit Looks Back on 10 Years of iPhone Teardowns
This week marked 10 years since Steve Jobs unveiled the original iPhone at Macworld in San Francisco. In commemoration, iFixit has published a roundup of 15 iPhone teardowns the site has completed over the past decade, offering a look at how the design’s construction has evolved over time.
In contrast to Apple’s iMacs and MacBooks which have become progressively more difficult to repair in recent years, the iPhone’s repairability score has fared a lot better after quickly improving upon its first incarnation, as noted by iFixit.
iFixit’s teardown of the first-generation iPhone
iPhones have become taller, wider, and skinnier. But they’ve also become more repairable. The very first iPhone earned a dismal 2/10 on our repairability scale. It had a soldered battery and was almost impossible to open without breaking the case. Repairability improved radically from there — jumping to a 7/10 for the iPhone 3G.
Since then, the company’s flagship smartphone has remained relatively repair-friendly, earning at least 6/10 on iFixit’s repairability rating with every iteration. The most recent iPhone offering, the iPhone 7, was awarded 7/10 on the scale in 2016.
Check out the “10 Years of iPhone” roundup page on iFixit, which also features a neat look at the visual changes the components have undergone over 15 models.
Related Roundup: iPhone 7
Tag: iFixit
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WhatsApp now lets you search for GIFs from within its interface
Spicing up your conversations with GIFs is easier than ever before.
The latest update to WhatsApp beta introduces GIF search, allowing you to search for and add GIFs without leaving the messaging platform. WhatsApp added support for GIFs a few months ago, although it was limited to sharing locally-saved GIFs. Today’s update makes it easier to search through Giphy’s extensive library and add GIFs directly from within WhatsApp’s interface. The update also increases the media sharing limit from 10 to 30.
The GIF search is accessible by selecting the emoji button to the left of the text field. Once you’re in the emoji selection window, you’ll see an option to toggle between emoji and GIFs. The latter tab shows you a list of popular GIFs, and there’s also an option to search through Giphy if you have a particular keyword in mind.
The ability to search GIFs is now live in the beta client (1.27.7), and should be rolling out to the stable release shortly.
U.S. airlines are no longer required to warn passengers about the Note 7
The Note 7 saga is finally coming to a close.
The Federal Aviation Administration has announced that airlines in the U.S. will no longer have to notify passengers about the Note 7. The phone is still banned from all passenger and cargo aircraft, but with Samsung stating that it recovered over 96% of Note 7 devices, the Department of Transportation is lifting its requirement regarding pre-boarding notifications:
The Department of Transportation removed the requirement for air carriers to specifically notify passengers about the Note7 phone immediately prior to boarding due to the high degree of public awareness of the ban since issuance of the emergency restriction/prohibition order, as well as the extensive efforts by Samsung and U.S. wireless providers to make all Note7 users aware the phone is recalled and banned from transport on U.S. aircraft.
The awareness of the ban is evidenced by the significant rate of recall returns.
With the FAA removing its requirement, other aviation ministries from around the world will likely follow suit.
For its part, Samsung has worked with carriers to effectively brick the Note 7 in the U.S. to expedite the recall process and mitigate any further explosions. The company undertook similar measures globally. As for what caused the phone to explode in the first place, we’ll likely find out the answer to that sometime this month.
Samsung Galaxy Note 7
- Galaxy Note 7 fires, recall and cancellation: Everything you need to know
- Survey results: Samsung users stay loyal after Note 7 recall
- Samsung Galaxy Note 7 review
- The latest Galaxy Note 7 news
- Join the Note 7 discussion in the forums!
AIVAnet 