Swype gets its biggest update in a long time but it’s still not as good as Gboard

It may not have the influence it once did, but Swype’s new update brings it back into focus.

In the early days of Android, Swype was basically unparalleled when it came to gesture keyboards. It was fast, reliable and intelligent. But its dominance was slowly eroded by competitors like SwiftKey and Google’s own first-party Google Keyboard, which is now known as Gboard, and the company behind the app, Nuance, slowed its development to a crawl.

The app has come out of hibernation for now with version 3.0, offering a number of new features, some improvements to the text engine, and emoji predictions, which seems to be table stakes for an Android keyboard these days.

There’s also an optional number row available for people who don’t want to switch to a secondary panel, along with support for the following:

• Handwriting Improvements
• Chinese Handwriting Multiple Character Recognition
• Uyghur keyboard
• Kashmiri Devanagari predictive language database
• Russian KDB for Russian and Kirghyz languages
• Improvements to Thai, Lao, Khmer

The trial version offers a full experience for 30 days, after which it forces you to buy the full version, on sale for $0.99 — a great deal for a very good keyboard. It’s still not as good as Gboard, nor as versatile as SwiftKey, but it’s close — and for someone who exclusively uses gesture typing over pecking at the screen, it could very well be preferred.

The best Android keyboards

This USB-C power meter can help make sure you don’t zap your phone into oblivion

Satechi’s USB-C power meter can tell you at a glance if everything is OK when you’re charging your stuff.

USB Type-C is the new hotness when it comes to plugging things in. It’s better that the old USB connector standards in every way because it provides a standardized way for everything with a battery and a USB-C port to be a charger and get charged. And you can plug your stuff in on the first try because the cable end is reversible — even in the dark. But one problem that’s plagued USB-C since it launched was that you can’t use just any cable.

More: What to look for when buying USB-C cables and adapters

It can be a big problem, too. The wrong cable can fry the things it’s plugged into and even start a fire. Since most of us have a bunch of cables sitting around, knowing which ones won’t wreck things is kind of important. It’s not hard to tell — if you have multimeters and get way up inside the end of the cable, which nobody is going to do. Luckily, now we don’t have to.

This is the Satechi USB-C Power Meter. It plugs into your phone or laptop or anything else with a USB-C port, and you plug the cable into the other end of it. It measures both the input and the output power you’re sending through the cable in real time. This will let you know if the power source and cable are providing the proper power and that your phone or Chromebook or MacBook is getting the right amount of power to safely charge its batteries. As long as you know the amount of juice a thing is supposed to be getting, you’ll know at a glance if everything is good or not.

The one thing the Satechi meter doesn’t do is shut it all down if things aren’t right. Remember that this isn’t a surge protector and has no buzzers or red lights to let you know you have a potentially bad cable or power source. You have to know how to read the information.

You should still try to buy the right cable when you get something new that uses USB-C and make sure it’s properly built for the charging technology your phone uses. But this cheap meter is a way to double check everything before it all goes boom.

See at Amazon

Microsoft hasn’t sold many HoloLens headsets, but that’s okay

Microsoft doesn’t care about HoloLens headset sales.

It’s been over six months since Microsoft opened up the mixed-reality headset to everyone. The company began selling developer kits last year for $3,000 a pop, and then in August, it made them available to Americans. Two months later, HoloLens launched in the UK. If you had £2,719, you could get your hands on the self-contained device, which doesn’t need to be connected to a separate computer (all the processing, storage, and other PC tech are in the headset itself). So, how are sales doing? Not so good, apparently.

Microsoft has just revealed that HoloLens sales haven’t reached millions or even hundreds of thousands so far. In an interview with The Inquirer on Friday, Roger Walkden, Microsoft’s HoloLens commercial lead, explained: “We’re not trying to sell hundreds of thousands or millions or anything, it’s expensive, and it’s not in huge numbers… We’re happy with the level of sales that we’ve got. I can’t tell you anything about the numbers, but it’s in thousands, not hundreds of thousands, and that’s fine. That’s all we need.”

In other words, if Microsoft doesn’t care about sales numbers, then neither should we. After all, the company isn’t marking HoloLens as a consumer device. Make no mistake: it is still describing HoloLens as a “development edition” device that’s meant specifically for developers. Still, sales are open to anyone. Unlike a virtual reality headset, such as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive or PlayStation VR, the HoloLens has a clear visor that allows computer graphics to be overlaid onto real world objects. In our review, we were thoroughly impressed by it.

Keep in mind — similar to how Microsoft is partnering with PC makers like HP and Dell to create Windows 10 VR headsets — Microsoft has hinted that partners could one day create their own HoloLens alternatives. Perhaps Microsoft is more interested in improving its Windows Holographic technology, rather than marketing the headset and driving up those meager sales numbers.

• Halo 5 on HoloLens hands-on: A gaming match made in Heaven?

FBI releases redacted report of its GamerGate investigation

It’s one thing to have read about (and reported on) the various threats of violence perpetrated by GamerGate, but seeing the FBI’s collection of documents regarding the harassment campaign is entirely different. The Bureau recently released a 173-page document that compiles a plethora of emails and tweets received, seemingly, by targets including culture critic Anita Sarkeesian and game developer Brianna Wu. There are also internal reports, police reports and letters of request to various gaming and tech companies. I only say “seemingly” because names, email addresses and identifying information has been redacted throughout the report. But lining up the emails with dates and news stories, it’s plainly obvious who the trolls were writing to.

One email to the Utah State University’s Taggart Student Center boasts: “You can try calling the FBI to come arrest me, but I’m behind 7 proxies and you’ll never be able to backtrack this IP. Can’t lulzback the [redacted].” As you’ll see, that confidence was not misplaced.

Other bits include formal FBI reports on the activities and investigations of bomb-threat suspects and Twitter users freely distributing personal identifying information (doxxing). For the latter, the FBI had the users’ account information, IP address and the threatening posts in question. Also included are requests from the FBI to Google for compliance to help with the investigations.

In an email regarding a YouTube account, the FBI asked Google to:

“take all necessary steps to preserve for a period of ninety (90) days any and all record and other evidence, including, but not limited to all e-mail, Google Talk histories, buddy lists, profiles, subscriber information, method of payment and detailed billing logs in its possession relating to the email accounts.

“The FBI is also requesting that Google Inc take all necessary steps to preserve for a period of ninety (90) days any and all records, videos, content and other evidence for the following YouTube account: [redacted].”

Similar messages were sent to Microsoft. In one internal report, the FBI details its use of Palantir to “analyze results obtained from a subpoena request to Twitter” for account info pertaining to a threat posted by a user.

There’s no shortage of galling information to sift through, including, as The Verge points out, a report detailing an interview between the Bureau and one of the harassers who was let off with little more than a slap on the wrist. The suspect admitted to calling and threatening a target 40 to 50 times a day by phone. After telling the agent they would stop the harassment, it seems like nothing further was done.

The closing report, dated September 21st, 2015, is again heavily redacted but essentially says that even with reviewing the dozens of threats, issuing subpoenas and tracking IP addresses that “no additional subjects or actionable leads were developed.”

The investigation into GamerGate was closed that year.

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation

Trump’s first week: An affront to the web and science

For those who opposed Donald Trump’s ascension to the White House, the first week of his presidency confirmed a number of fears. Many of Trump’s perceived worst characteristics were on full display. He openly lied about crowd sizes at his inauguration, made his baseless accusations of mass voter fraud a matter of federal investigation and laced his inauguration speech with nationalist overtones.

Work began on two of the big initiatives Trump focused on in his campaign: dismantling the Affordable Care Act and building a wall on the Mexico border. The week also featured major moves relating to issues that we focus on here at Engadget: The new administration’s disregard of climate change and the environment was on full display, and a major foe of net neutrality is now leading the FCC.

The moves to dismantle environmental regulations have easily been one of the administration’s biggest focuses in week one. Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday to resume work on the Keystone XL pipeline and Dakota Access pipeline, two oil lines with extremely contentious histories. President Obama rejected the Keystone XL Pipeline in 2015, arguing that it would undercut the US’ place as a leader in the fight against climate change and temporarily blocked work on the Dakota Access pipeline as well. The New York Times noted that the pipelines “were more about symbol than substance,” but Trump immediately reversing Obama’s orders around them shows that environmental concerns are not a priority.

Signing orders to move forward with the construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines in the Oval Office. pic.twitter.com/OErGmbBvYK

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 24, 2017

The Environmental Protection Agency has also been under siege since Trump took office. After the inauguration, he immediately froze all grants and contracts. It’s not totally unprecedented, as new administrations often put a halt on work that was ongoing to give time to review it, but this freeze isn’t the only way the EPA has been targeted thus far.

The new administration also banned all EPA employees from posting updates on social media and speaking to the media. The research arm of the Department of Agriculture was under a similar ban that was lifted a day later. On Thursday, USA Today reported that the ban on grants had been lifted after less than a week. “We finished our review process,” said acting EPA spokesperson Doug Ericksen. “As of now, nothing has been delayed. Nothing has been cut. There was simply a pause and everything’s up and running.” Regardless, it’s concerning to see the government keep its employees from speaking to the public.

Similarly, NPR reported that the EPA will have to submit its studies and data for review by “political staff” before public release. These reviews could contradict contradict the agency’s scientific integrity policy, which was put into place in 2012. It prohibits “all EPA employees, including scientists, managers and other Agency leadership from suppressing, altering, or otherwise impeding the timely release of scientific findings or conclusions.”

BREAKING: Trump administration mandating EPA scientific studies, data undergo review by political staff before public release.

— The Associated Press (@AP) January 25, 2017

Considering all of this, it’s no surprise that when the White House website was updated last Friday, all references to climate change were removed. All of WhiteHouse.gov was updated and all of the old Obama site’s content was archived, so it’s not as if those pages would have lived on anyway. But with not a single mention of climate change anywhere to be found, it’s clear the administration doesn’t believe it is a priority. Reports have also suggested that the EPA’s climate change data and research could be scrubbed from its site, but it doesn’t look like that’s happening in the near future.

As the week went on, a few brave souls within the government took to Twitter to stick it to Trump. On inauguration day, the official National Park Service Twitter account retweeted a photo comparing the size of Trump’s inauguration crowd to Obama’s — after which all Department of the Interior employees were told to stop using official Twitter accounts.

For later, after those Badlands National Park tweets get deleted, here’s what happened. ht @migold pic.twitter.com/b5vnKjwDnn

— Patrick LaForge (@palafo) January 24, 2017

Some defied those orders, though — the best example thus far was the Twitter account for the Badlands National Park. Earlier this week, someone with the account’s password started posting data on climate change (supposedly they were posted by a former employee who still had access to the account). Naturally, the tweets were quickly deleted, but events like this and the EPA’s gag order haven’t reflected well on the new administration.

Oddly enough, the administration may be making things harder for itself by deleting the handful of tweets that have popped up on government accounts. Deleting tweets could violate the Freedom of Information Act if they weren’t properly saved; there’s a reason that @POTUS and other such accounts note that “tweets may be archived.” Trump himself may have already violated that rule by deleting a few tweets that had typos in them.

Speaking of Twitter, the digital handoff between Obama and Trump hasn’t been all that seamless. There’s been a number of gaffs, perhaps most publicly with the @POTUS Twitter account. Those following that account while President Obama was in office were supposed to be transferred to a new account, @POTUS44. That archival account presents everything tweeted from the @POTUS handle while Obama was in office.

Thanks to a bug in Twitter’s transition tool, however, anyone who followed @POTUS44 after noon on inauguration day was set to follow @POTUS as well, and lots of people who unfollowed @POTUS found that it didn’t stick. It was quickly sorted out, and obviously not the government’s fault, but it was another bungle that got plenty of attention.

More crucially, a number of useful resources from the official White House website under the Obama administration were removed without being replaced. For example, there’s no more Spanish-language version of the site, something that existed under both Obama and his predecessor George W. Bush. In addition to removing climate change pages, the White House website now makes no mention of LGBTQ rights — no big surprise given the administration’s lack of focus on those areas, but still troubling to the millions of Americans who care about them.

This afternoon, I was informed that @POTUS @realDonaldTrump designated me the 34th Chairman of the @FCC. It is a deeply humbling honor. pic.twitter.com/Joza18aP33

— Ajit Pai (@AjitPaiFCC) January 23, 2017

But the most important news regarding the internet during Trump’s first week came when Ajit Pai took over as FCC commissioner, succeeding Tom Wheeler. Pai’s ascension was no surprise, but it raises concerns for those who support net neutrality. Pai has been a staunch opponent, and the Trump administration has made it clear to values growing business rather than upholding consumer-friendly policies. Disappointing, to be sure, but at the very least Trump can’t banish net neutrality protection with the wave of a pen — it’ll take some time to roll back what happened under Obama and Wheeler.

Those are just a few of the things that happened in an extremely busy first week for the Trump presidency. All told, the new president signed 12 executive orders in his first week, a pace he certainly won’t keep up. (President Obama averaged 35 executive orders per year during his tenure.) The breakneck pace may slow down, but president Trump’s priorities are quickly coming into focus. Sadly, a free web and scientific integrity aren’t among them.

The Public Access Weekly: Feel the pain

Greetings and salutations all, and welcome to Friday. We’re going to make it a quick one — I’ve been unexpectedly laid up with back pain this week so the whole Public Access machine has sort of ground to a halt. That means a lot of you have been waiting too long to hear back about articles and registrations, and my sincere apologies for that. So, let’s get this party started so I can get back to all of you (very patient) folks!

A quick note for Public Access users: There have been some issues lately with members not understanding what constitutes plagiarism so let me clarify. Publishing work that belongs to someone else is plagiarism. Do not publish someone else’s work under your name — even if they are a friend and ask you to help them out because they are having computer problems, or say they’ve been waiting too long for an article to be approved, or have forgotten their login info. If you did not write it, and your name is on it, that is plagiarism and we will bounce you. If you want to quote something that someone else has written or said, then you need to use quotation marks around the text you did not write and cite the source with a mention and a link. As always, if you have questions you can email us or click the “Start Conversation” button within the story template.

Looking for something to read? Check out:

Richard Smith’s first Public Access post walks us through his thoughts and opinions on the Google Pixel and Pixel XL handsets — and it’s a great example of a Public Access member giving their straightforward, unvarnished opinion on a new smartphone line.

Meanwhile, Matthew Finch gave us some insight onto how artificial intelligence and chatbots are impacting the future of health services by examining the partnership of Google’s DeepMind with the National Health Service and how that partnership is improving patient autonomy.

Lastly, Jojo Roy contributed a thoughtful piece on our “heads down” world of technology consumption and absorption in the context of how digital game designers could change the culture by creating games that provide novel social experiences that foster human togetherness.

Looking for something to write about? Mull over:

Five states have introduced “Right to repair” bills to help tech repair kiosks and shops get access to legit parts and official manuals. Should manufacturers make it easier for third-party shops to repair their products? Should the grey-area legalities around authorized parts simply be clarified to protect them? Or should companies do better in providing customers with authorized repair centers?

Sophocles said “I would prefer even to fail with honor than win by cheating.” Apparently over six thousand Pokémon Sun and Moon players feel differently, as the company recently put the smack down on those who had been using modified save files. So…What’s the best way for a gaming company to catch and punish cheaters?

Sean Buckley is not a fan of the PlayStation Store’s ‘minimum funding’ charges, even going so far as to declare the practice “anti-consumer” (although to be fair he also admits he might just be a whiner). There were plenty of folks in the comments who agreed or disagreed with both his claim, and his opinion, so we thought we’d throw it open to you: Is the PlayStation Store’s minimum funds practice a minor quibble or a pain in the ass? Why or why not? And should the company end or upgrade these policies?

‘Gears of War 4’ makes cross-platform multiplayer official

Last December Microsoft tried out something it hadn’t done in quite awhile: adversarial cross-platform multiplayer. For a single weekend, there was a test between folks playing against each other in Gears of War 4 on PC and Xbox One. Now, that’s moving from a beta to an official release. Before you reach for the pitchforks, though, this is only for the brawny shooter’s (unranked) Social Quickplay mode. From a post on the Windows 10 blog:

“Despite the closely matched performance between users on both platforms seen in our cross-play Test Weekend, we always want to ensure our Ranked experiences are as closely matched and competitive as possible.”

More or less, don’t expect the different platforms to commingle during any type of serious play. Over on Xbox Wire, Gears developer The Coalition’s Liam Ashley writes that both console and PC players had “closely-matched results” in terms of average kill-to-death ratios, score and kills per-match based on their respective skill ratings.

With this experiment in the books, it wouldn’t be surprising if we see cross-platform play happen in other games. After all, the gulf between aiming accuracy via mouse and keyboard on a PC versus a gamepad is a pretty high bar to overcome. Now it’s been addressed in a way that seemingly Microsoft and fans are happy with.

Since that hurdle has been addressed, what’s stopping Microsoft from opening up people playing Forza on a PC against pals on Xboxes? So long as it isn’t ranked competition, there shouldn’t be too much pushback.

Source: Windows 10 blog, Xbox Wire

Japan is getting a Final Fantasy XIV-inspired live-action TV drama

When you hear the term “live action Final Fantasy TV drama,” you probably imagine something akin to Game of Thrones. But don’t get your hopes up too much. Final Fantasy XIV: Daddy of Light is actually an upcoming Japanese TV drama that centers on the relationship between a father and son playing the popular MMO, reports Kotaku. It’s based on a series of blog posts by a Japanese gamer who played FFXIV with his 60-year-old father, and it’s also apparently the first time Final Fantasy has inspired a live action show. The series will also incorporate in-game segments from the MMO when it launches in April, so fans will still be able to get their Chocobo fix.

Via: Kotaku

Source: Model Press

Pursue startup success at any cost in ‘The Founder’

If you’ve ever wanted to play through a cynical take on Silicon Valley in a Sims-like fashion, Francis Tseng has a game for you. It’s called The Founder and this dystopian look at the founding and success of a startup comes in the form of a browser-based game. You start out in 2001, plotting to take over the world after naming your company, picking a business and adding your first employee. Of course, you’re working in an apartment like all new companies do.

Before you know it, it’s 2020 and you’re building government drones and developing brain implants. There’s even a parody version of TED talks called DENT for you to participate in. Of course, growth and profits are the only indicators of success and you’ll have to make some decisions along the way that may seem just fine during the course of the game, but they come at a huge cost.

Tseng says his experience working in the real Silicon Valley shaped his idea for the game. He explained to Fast Company that while a lot of good things were happening during his time there, he felt like a lot of innovation was going to waste.

Tseng says it took him about a year and a half to build the startup simulator in his spare time. The goal here is that as the game progresses and technologies get more insane, players will eventually realize that the startup is part of a world you really don’t want to be a part of anymore. After hitting Kickstarter to crowdfund the final product, the game was released online today. However, you really shouldn’t expect to have a good time playing it. As Tseng notes, “The only way to win is not to play.”

Via: Fast Company

Source: The Founder

BitTorrent’s live TV app finally arrives on Android

Despite troubles plaguing the company, BitTorrent has brought its peer-to-peer live streaming app to Android, a few weeks after making the iOS version available. The app can be downloaded from the Google Play Store, where it has already garnered a lukewarm rating of 3.2.

BitTorrent Live lets you watch TV broadcasts for free, and features programming curated by the company. It includes livestreams of “alternative voices in news,” as well as sports and cultural content. Since Live is a peer-to-peer system, the quality of its streams will depend on the number of users tuning in. Based on the Play Store reviews, it appears the Android app lacks Chromecast support, and needs to work on improving its interface and library.

Meanwhile, BitTorrent recently lost one of its CEOs who was involved with its ad-supported video and music-streaming service Now, causing speculation that the service was in trouble. BitTorrent later said it “remains focused on the media space.” Bringing BitTorrent Live to Android is a good follow-through on that commitment, but given the turmoil reportedly going on at the company, the future of BitTorrent Live is uncertain.

Source: Google Play Store