AT&T adds an international roaming day pass with catches

AT&T subscribers haven’t had the greatest international roaming options. The carrier’s Passport plans give you a tiny amount of data even at the highest tier, which could make it cheaper to unlock your phone and use a travel-friendly SIM card. At last, though, the network is offering something for travelers who don’t want to scale back their usage while abroad. It’s introducing an International Day Pass that lets you use your domestic plan (including data) in over 100 countries for $10 per day. It goes a little further, too: you can make unlimited calls to both the US and any Day Pass country, and as many texts as you like anywhere in the world. Passes will be available starting on January 27th.

There are some gotchas. AT&T sells passes by the device, so it could get very expensive to connect your whole family. Also, the company might pull your Day Pass access if your international data usage goes beyond 50 percent of your plan for two consecutive months. This is meant more for typical vacations and business trips than extended stays.

How does it compare to other options? It’s mixed, really. T-Mobile doesn’t charge anything for international data use, but you only get LTE speeds in Canada and Mexico. It’ll be a pokey 128Kbps everywhere else. Sprint has a similar offer, but you’ll have to pay for full-speed data depending on where you go and how much you use. Google’s Project Fi has the sweetest deal at $10 for every gigabyte you use, but you’ll have to pay by the minute for calls when you’re not on WiFi — and of course, you can’t use it with just any phone. The most analogous alternative is Verizon’s TravelPass, which charges the same $10 per day unless you travel to Canada or Mexico (where it’s $2 for most people).

The International Day Pass is certainly an improvement on Passport, and better than T-Mobile or Sprint if you insist on high speeds. However, it’s likely not your first choice if you expect to spend a lot of time abroad, or if you just need the basics and would rather spend as little as possible.

Via: The Verge

Source: AT&T

White House adds four ‘Skype seats’ for press briefings

Starting this week, the White House will open up four so-called Skype seats to reporters outside of Washington, DC. Press secretary Sean Spicer announced the move in a briefing today, one that he says will “open up the briefing room to journalists who live beyond 50 miles” of the DC area. Spicer also explained that the virtual access will give news outlets that don’t have press passes or the financial resources to travel a chance to attend White House news sessions.

“I think this can benefit us all by giving a platform to voices that are not necessarily based here in the Beltway,” Spicer said.

This announcement of online access comes a week after reports indicated President Donald Trump was considering moving press conferences to the Executive Office Building next door to the White House. While some saw the chatter as a means of limiting access to the White House, chief of staff Reince Priebus said the move would be to accommodate more attendees than the current room allows.

Via: Al Tompkins (Twitter)

Source: BBC News (Facebook)

The White House’s Spanish-language website is gone, for now

Under both George W. Bush and Barack Obama, the White House maintained a Spanish-language version of its official website, while the Obama administration also updated its companion Twitter account, @LaCasaBlanca. Since noon on Friday, just after President Donald Trump took the oath of office, the White House’s Spanish-language website has been down and the associated Twitter account empty.

The Trump administration is working on getting the Spanish-language website back up and running, Press Secretary Sean Spicer said today during a White House press briefing.

“We are continuing to build out the website, both in the issue areas and then that area,” Spicer said in response to a question about the Spanish-language site. “But we’ve got the IT folks working overtime right now to continue to get all of that up to speed. Trust me, it’s just going to take a little bit more time, but we’re working piece by piece to get that done.”

Sean Spicer says the Trump administration is “working piece by piece” to get the White House Spanish website back up https://t.co/4OBubbjSWY

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) January 23, 2017

The White House website is undergoing an overhaul as the Trump administration moves in. Some sections, including the page for LGBT issues and all references to climate change, disappeared on Friday and have yet to return. However, shortly after the swearing-in ceremony, the White House website was updated with Trump’s plan to eliminate the Climate Action Plan and Waters of the US rule.

On Monday, Spicer also announced the addition of four “Skype seats” to daily White House briefings. These will ostensibly allow journalists who live outside of Washington, DC, to attend the briefings, though Spicer didn’t mention which outlets will have access or how they’ll be chosen.

We’ve reached out to the White House for clarification on the Spanish-language website and the new Skype seats, and we’ll update our reports as we hear back.

Humanoid beer-and-pizza-fetching robot is charmingly retro

Delivery robots are starting to hit the streets, but few do it with as much joie de vivre as a new device called the Fundroid. The gender-neutral beer-and-pizza-fetching robot, lovingly nicknamed Funnie, debuted at the Software For Artists event on Sunday in Brooklyn, New York. Funnie made its way to a nearby pizza store and bodega to order, pay for, and deliver food and beverages to the guests at nonprofit foundation Pioneer Works, which hosted the event.

The Fundroid is different from other delivery bots in several ways. Not only is Funnie the first humanoid transportation robot we’ve seen, but it’s also able to order and pay for food, instead of simply picking up and delivering a paid-for meal. There aren’t any plans to make Funnie a publicly available system, though, so those hoping to get their very own bot to serve them beer and pizza shouldn’t get too excited. David Sheinkopf, director of technology at Pioneer Works, and his team came up with Funnie as a way to demonstrate that robotics can be entertaining, approachable and artistic.

It’s clear the second you lay eyes on Funnie that it’s not your typical bot. Funnie looks more like a sculpture that was cobbled together from various junkyard parts. The version I saw had exposed wires and motors, as well as add-ons that seemed haphazardly glued on. In fact, the part of the robot that looks the most finished is its head, which is made out of a lampshade with holes cut out to house its 3D-printed “eyes.” Between these sits the webcam that serves as Funnie’s nose. This scans the surroundings for QR code-like graphics on the doors of participating stores. From the geometry and shape of these symbols, Funnie can calculate its angle from the front of the door and position itself so it’s directly facing the store’s entrance.

The Fundroid can’t climb stairs yet, so it needs help getting into places that have a step at their door and don’t have a ramp. But the establishments that were expecting Funnie on Sunday had already been warned of this, and were ready to assist the robot when it arrives. That’s one of Funnie’s limitations: It’s not completely autonomous. Rather, it requires the people it interacts with to keep pushing a big button that says “Proceed” to trigger its next action, such as greeting its audience or rattling off an order. It would be easy to make Funnie more intelligent — say, by adding a weight sensor on its arms to tell when food has been placed on them, or facial recognition to detect when someone is standing in front of it. Nonetheless, for a robot that was put together in just eight weeks, Funnie is impressive. It gets the job done.

Once Funnie is inside a store, it will (after someone pushes the Proceed button) order pizza or beer. It does so in an endearingly old-fashioned way, asking the “kind proprietors” for some “pizza pie”. Indeed, Funnie’s language is a big part of its charm. Cheesy lines like, “My my my, I love a pizza pie” are at once amusing and endearing. Just like its exterior, Funnie’s vernacular seems slightly archaic.

Speaking of, one of the oldest parts of the robot is its chunky elephant of a laptop that runs Windows 95. When I asked Sheinkopf why the team used such an outdated system, he deadpanned, “Because it needs to buy beer.” Get it? As of 2017, Windows 95 is a 22-year-old operating system and can legally buy alcohol in America.

Also unique to Funnie is its “money-dispensing unit,” an envelope-sized box with a motorized cover that opens after the robot orders its food. It’s a rudimentary setup, but when Funnie says “keep the change” and snaps the money box shut, you can’t help but smile.

Once Funnie receives the pizza, it uses sharp, hook-shaped “thumbs” (that Pioneer Works calls its talons) to punch holes into the box. This keeps its precious cargo from slipping out of its grip as it navigates the bumpy streets on its way back to the event. Traveling at about three to five miles per hour, Funnie is not at risk of violating any speed limits. And with the cold January weather, it’s safe to say the pizzas were no longer hot when the robot returned to the event

A lot of the tech that powers Funnie is basic, but effective. It has motorized wheels, a LIDAR object-detection system to help it recognize walls and run parallel to them, as well as onboard GPS. But GPS can be inaccurate or unreliable for the short routes that Funnie travels. Sheinkopf and his team worked with Brooklyn-based Smooth Technology to use an odometer and a mathematical algorithm to track the robot’s distance traveled by counting how many times the wheel has made a complete revolution.

One thing that’s important to note about Funnie is that it’s not intended to be anything more than a mere tech demonstration — not to mention a means of entertaining guests at Sunday’s event. If Funnie were really to take to the streets of New York, it would not survive. Its slow traveling speed and reliance on outside help, among other drawbacks, make it less useful in real-world scenarios.

But that doesn’t mean the robot doesn’t serve a purpose. Sheinkopf sees Funnie as something that technologists and artists can gather around at Software For Artists, showing folks from both fields that tech can be expressive and personable. The gathering aims to bring together the two realms and foster collaboration and crossover in more meaningful ways. After the demonstration, Sheinkopf said that his team will be repurposing Funnie’s position-tracking components for other upcoming projects. So even though it won’t be making any more deliveries after Sunday, Funnie will live on in other, potentially more useful, ways.

Yelp’s redesigned homepage puts photos front and center

Yelpers everywhere will soon be greeted with a new homepage. Earlier today, Yelp announced it’s rolling out a redesign that focuses on showcasing imagery from users, as well as content from different local services (think: not only restaurants). Yelp says this overhaul is also about making it easier for account holders to find what they’re looking for, including businesses, popular categories and recent activity from others. The search bar is now placed front and center too, next to visuals from the community, something that Yelp hopes can make the experience more interactive for people on the site.

The freshly minted homepage doesn’t appear to be live for everyone yet, but you should see it show up in the coming days.

Source: Yelp

Right to Repair bills introduced in five states

Anyone with a cracked iPhone screen knows what a pain it is to go through Apple to get it repaired. You have to make a Genius Bar appointment, which may or may not still require you to wait around for a service technician. Then it could be hours before you get your precious back into your possession. Or, you could use one of the repair kiosks found in nearly every mall in the United States and be back in business in about 45 minutes.

The problem is that kiosk and other repair shops like it might be running afoul of the law. Apple doesn’t have an “authorized repair” model for its iOS devices. The iPhone maker isn’t alone in this. Other electronics manufacturers only offer repairs via their own stores or workshops. This means individuals and small companies don’t have access to official parts or manuals. So they either have to scavenge what they need from broken devices or purchase them from grey markets and that’s how they get in trouble using counterfeit parts.

To keep small businesses out of trouble and to allow end users the opportunity to actually fix the things they buy, Motherboard reports that five states (Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota,Massachusetts and New York) have introduced “right to repair” bills. It would give shops the ability to buy the parts they need and get access to official manuals from manufacturers. and it’s not just tiny computers you put in your pocket, the bills also would affect large appliances and tractors.

So while most of us won’t be ripping apart electronics on our own any time soon, these bills will make it easier to get our devices fixed by third-party vendors. Even the kiosk folks.

Source: Motherboard

iPhone 8 May Use Apple’s In-House Inductive Wireless Charging Rather Than Technology From Energous

Over the course of the last year, there has been ongoing speculation that wireless charging company Energous has inked a deal with Apple and could potentially provide wireless charging technology for the upcoming iPhone 8.

While Energous CEO Steve Rizzone has continually hinted that his company has established an agreement with “one of the largest consumer electronic companies in the world,” leading people to believe the partner is Apple, a new investor’s note from Copperfield Research outlines why Apple has no plans to use Energous’ WattUp radio frequency-based wireless charging solution.

Copperfield Research examined multiple inductive charging patent applications filed by Apple starting in 2013, which now number more than a dozen, suggesting the patents are a clear indication of Apple’s desire to pursue its own in-house inductive charging solutions for future products. Inductive charging, widely used today, relies on magnetic coils to provide power rather than radio waves.

An image from an Apple patent covering inductive charging
The patents by themselves are not a clear indication of Apple’s plans, but in one patent filed in 2011, Apple makes its feelings on radio frequency-based charging clear, calling it “very inefficient,” “not practical,” and potentially hazardous. In the interest of full disclosure, however, the patent was filed before any prospective relationship with Energous.

However, this type of radiative transfer is very inefficient because only a tiny portion of the supplied or radiated power, namely, that portion in the direction of, and overlapping with, the receiver is picked up. The vast majority of the power is radiated away in all the other directions and lost in free space. Such inefficient power transfer may be acceptable for data transmission, but is not practical for transferring useful amounts of electrical energy for the purpose of doing work, such as for charging electrical devices. […]

In addition, such schemes may pose hazards to objects or people that cross or intersect the beam when modest to high amounts of power are being transmitted.

Furthermore, Copperfield Research suggests both rumored design decisions and recent news that Apple has partnered with Lite-On Semiconductor for wireless charging bridge rectifiers are indications of Apple’s plan to use inductive charging.

Bridge rectifiers, explains Copperfield Research, are used to convert alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC), a component needed for inductive charging and one that would not be necessary should Apple be relying on an all-in-one module from Energous.

Apple’s rumored decision to use a glass body also reportedly points towards inductive charging. A glass body would not be required for RF-based wireless charging technology, but is needed for an inductive charging solution.

Adding further credence to Apple’s inductive charging roadmap are the consistent leaks from Asian sources that the next iPhone will feature glass casing. Inductive charging does not penetrate aluminum cases effectively, which is the material for the current iPhone casing. One reason Samsung adopted plastic material for its cases is to improve the performance of wireless charging.

A major misperception among tech blogs and WATT investors is that Apple’s switch to a glass casing somehow confirms the inclusion of WATT’s charging technology. This is ridiculous. The efficacy of RF wireless charging (WATT’s technology) is not affected by aluminum or plastic cases.

Many of Apple’s inductive charging patents outline the improvements Apple has made in the field over the course of the last few years and give hints as to how wireless charging could work if Apple is indeed developing an in-house inductive charging solution for the iPhone 8.

Patents point towards multiple objects that could provide power, such as a table top with a charging coil built in, a desktop charging station, or even a desktop or notebook computer, which could be used to provide power to an iPhone or iPad. Devices could even share power between one another, suggesting a fully charged iPad could charge an iPhone, or vice versa.

An image from an Apple patent covering inductive charging
Copperfield Research does believe that Apple had a partnership with Energous that gave the Cupertino-based company a way to research radio frequency-based charging without shelling out cash, but concludes that there is an “overwhelmingly conclusive mosaic” suggesting Apple will use in-house inductive charging for the iPhone 8.

Copperfield Research is made up of an anonymous group of researchers that have shorted Watt’s stock and may not be entirely impartial, but the evidence they have presented makes a compelling argument for the use of an in-house inductive charging solution rather than a partnership with Energous.

Related Roundup: iPhone 8 (2017)
Tags: wireless charging, Energous
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Apple Again Seeks FCC Approval for Mysterious ‘Wireless Device’ With Bluetooth and NFC

For all of its devices that use communications technologies like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and NFC, Apple has to submit them to the United States Federal Communications Commission for approval, and the filings, though restricted, occasionally give hints as to what Apple is working on.

In early January, Apple sought approval for an unnamed “Wireless Device” that features support for NFC and Bluetooth. With a model number of A1846, the device appears to be an iteration of a similar Wireless Device that was submitted for regulatory approval back in September. That device shared the same design but had a model number of A1844.

The A1846 model number is not similar to existing Apple products, unveiling no information. There are no photos of the device itself, but a regulatory label that was on the original A1844 device pictured pointed towards slightly curved edges and two included torx screws. Apple appears to have updated the imagery in the second A1846 submission to give fewer hints on its design.

When the original “Wireless Device” was uncovered, there was some speculation that it could perhaps be a new Apple TV, but given the design of the product and the prominent FCC labeling, it’s much more likely that this is a behind-the-scenes object that will not see a public release.

Regulatory information is etched directly on the back plate of the device along with a wiring guide, details that are not included on consumer-facing products.

It’s possible that the device in question is something that’s used in retail Apple stores, such as a product display unit or iBeacon-based equipment used to communicate with customer iOS devices.

Given Apple’s secrecy and its request for the FCC to keep all images, descriptions, diagrams, and antenna locations for the device hidden from the public, we won’t know more about the device until it’s released, and if it is indeed a non-consumer-facing product as we suspect, we may never figure out what it is.

Tag: FCC
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Apple Releases iTunes 12.5.5 With ‘Minor App and Performance Improvements’

Alongside macOS Sierra 10.12.3, iOS 10.2.1, watchOS 3.1.3, and tvOS 10.1.1, Apple has released an update to its iTunes software for Mac and Windows, introducing iTunes 12.5.5.

Apple does not provide much information on what’s included in the iTunes 12.5.5 update. According to the company’s release notes, iTunes 12.5.5 introduces “minor app and performance improvements.”

iTunes 12.5.5 can be downloaded immediately from the Software Update feature in the Mac App Store. The Windows version can be downloaded using the “Check for Update” feature built into the iTunes help menu.

iTunes 12.5.5 follows iTunes 12.5.4, which was released in December and introduced support for the TV app and the Touch Bar on the new MacBook Pro models.

Tag: iTunes
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Kubik is a colorful, easy, and fun 3D puzzler (review)

OK, a show of hands: Who here has never heard of Tetris?
Nobody? Thought so.

Now, another show of hands: Who here can’t just play a single game of Tetris, but instead quickly become convinced that the turn on it will be the all-time high score. Ah, right again.

We are light years beyond Tetris’s heyday, but the basic principle still has plenty of appeal: a simple game with simple mechanics, lots of colors, short but repeatable gameplay, and even some social appeal (“I can do better than you can!”).

Enter Kubik, a game from the developer Ketchapp Games. Sight unseen, consider it a slimmed-down, 3D version of the ever-popular Tetris. The game is very family-friendly (though younger children may struggle a bit with the 3D spatial relations involved to play) but adults would also enjoy this title, too.
Ketchapp Games has dozens of games available on the Play Store, including “Don’t Step on the White Tile” (a game my kiddos still pick up and play after more than a year later).

Setup

Setup is very easy; just download from the Play Store and enter the game. There extremely little in the way of settings or options. Essentially you can turn the background music and subtle sound effects on or off, buy some of the premium world bases up front, and check the leaderboard. Other than that, it’s a big pulsating ‘TAP TO PLAY’ icon square in the middle of the screen to get you going.

Gameplay

Gameplay is very solid; it works just like the old Tetris, but with a 3D element added to it. You start with a bare 3 square x 3 square grid at the bottom. From above the screen drop down geometric shapes of various sizes and geometries (again these are essentially the same shapes that are in Tetris but with a 3rd dimension to them).

Your job is to spin the grid at the bottom using basic left and right screen swipes, lining up the shapes on top of one another to make the most efficient block tower possible. You want to leave air spaces at a minimum, as with them your tower can grow quickly. If it hits a certain height (shown by a super-imposed indicator).

I found the gameplay to actually be pretty easy. The speed at which this game moves is almost “slow”…..but it’s kinda nice respite from a lot of current games that put an almost-impossible expectation on your supposed cat-like reflexes (I don’t have any of those).

Additionally, the game also lights up the particular squares that the currently-falling block will land on. Rotate the floor, and it will update the squares that will be landed on. While this does assist in making Kubik kind of easy, it does do a great job in preventing the game from being unplayable, in my opinion. Trying to guess which squares would be landed on, only to be proven wrong again and again…..I would have uninstalled this game in short order. Thankfully that’s not the case at all here. If you are certain of the falling block’s location, a simple screen tap will speed it’s drop to full free-fall to get to the next piece faster.

The only real upgrade available is in the “world” that your floor happens to sit on. They don’t offer any strategic or performance enhancements, but hey, they sure are cute.

Visuals and Audio

You can probably guess by now that I’m a fan of the visuals in this game. The colors are solid but a bit muted, and the motion throughout the game is buttery-smooth. It almost can lull you to sleep it’s so nice.
Which brings us to Kubik’s audio. There are very few and subtle sound effects (little ‘plinks’ and ‘dunks’ for game action. I think the background music is love-it-or-hate-it, as it’s has a twangy new-age/zen feel to it that will either have you enjoying yourself immensely or looking for that mute button. But in the end it does work for this game, as the overall feel isn’t hyper-competitive mayhem, but relaxed distraction.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed Kubik; it knows what it wants to be, and almost completely succeeds. My only personal want is to manually dial the difficulty up or down, based on the player or the mood. But other than that it’s a perfect Tetris alternative in this 3D, touchscreen world we’re living in.

Download Kubik from the Play Store here.