Amazon refuses to hand over Alexa info for murder investigation

Amazon continues to resist law enforcement’s demands to hand over the audio recordings for an Echo involved in an Arkansas murder investigation. The tech titan has filed a motion to throw out a search warrant from prosecutors, arguing that both the users’ voice commands and Alexa’s replies are protected by the First Amendment. As such, the demand must be subjected to a “heightened standard” — prosecutors must prove that they can’t find the information elsewhere and must demonstrate a compelling need for the recordings.

Amazon says prosecutors haven’t established a compelling need for the Alexa data, thus far. But if the warrant is upheld, the company wants the court to review the data before handing it over to prosecutors to make sure it’s actually relevant to the case.

The investigation in question looks into the suspicious death of former Georgia police officer Victor Collins in 2015. He was found floating face-up in a hot tub in the home of his friend, James Andrew Bates, who called the cops to report that he found the body. Bates claimed the death was an accidental drowning, but Collins’ eyes and lips were swollen, and there were drops of blood around the tub. He’s now the investigation’s prime suspect.

An Echo speaker was also streaming music near the tub. Authorities believe there’s a possibility that Alexa was activated with a “wake word” either intentionally or accidentally around the time of Collins’ death. They believe a recording could shed light on what happened that night. It could, for instance, reveal if Bates was awake when he claimed he was asleep.

Amazon explained in the motion that its purpose isn’t to obstruct any lawful investigation. In fact, it already gave authorities access to Bates’ purchase history and user information. However, it “seeks to protect the privacy rights of its customers when the government is seeking their data… especially when that data may include expressive content protected by the First Amendment.”

The company pointed out in the court documents that authorities would have access to the recordings if Bates installed the Alexa app on his Nexus phone. However, his device was encrypted at the chipset level. It’s possible that the only way authorities can access the recordings without Amazon’s help is if they mimic what the feds did to deal with the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone. If you’ll recall, Apple refused to unlock the phone for the FBI, so the agency sought help from another company.

But will the court side actually with Amazon and quash the search warrant? University of Arizona College of Law professor Toni Massaro told Forbes that it could go either way:

“…even if they are speech, they may not always be protected from government regulation. That something may be covered by the First Amendment does not mean it is protected.”

Source: AP, Ars Technica, BBC, GeekWire, Forbes

10.5-Inch and 12.9-Inch iPads May Not Ship Until May or June

The 10.5-inch and 12.9-inch iPads that Apple is expected to debut at a March event aren’t expected to ship until May or June, supply chain sources tell DigiTimes. An entry-level 9.7-inch iPad, however, is expected to ship within close proximity of the March event.

In January, DigiTimes reported that the 10.5-inch and 12.9-inch iPads were expected to enter mass production in the Q2 of 2017 while the 9.7-inch iPad would enter mass production in Q1 2017. The potential release dates partly line up with a recent report from Mac Otakara, which said the 10.5-inch iPad may not be ready to ship until May. However, that report said the three other iPad models rumored to debut at the March event, new 7.9-inch, 9.7-inch and 12.9-inch iPads, are expected to ship in March.

12.9-inch iPad shipments have been drying up around the world in recent weeks, slipping to shipping estimates of 2-3 weeks in the United States, Canada, Australia, France, Germany and Japan. While increasing shipping times are a sign of an impending refresh, in this case it seems to be a supply issue.

During Apple’s latest earning call, CEO Tim Cook said that the company underestimated iPad demand in the past quarter and had an issue with one of its suppliers. Cook said the issue would probably not be resolved this quarter, likely leading to shriveling 12.9-inch iPad stock. Similarly, the supply issue could keep the refreshed 12.9-inch iPad from shipping before May.

The new 10.5-inch model is expected to be the flagship model in Apple’s new iPad lineup, sporting an edge-to-edge display on the same footprint as the current 9.7-inch iPad. Alongside new iPads at a March event, Apple is also expected to debut a 128 GB iPhone SE and red iPhone 7 and 7 Plus color variations.

Related Roundup: iPad Pro
Tag: digitimes.com
Buyer’s Guide: 12.9″ iPad Pro (Caution)
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Apple Investigating iPhone 7 Plus Caught Melting on Video

Apple is investigating a melting iPhone 7 Plus that’s the subject of a viral video on Twitter, reports Mashable. The owner of the phone, Brianna Olivas, says her phone exploded and started smoking Wednesday morning. Her boyfriend grabbed his phone and started recording the video, which has garnered 21,340 retweets on Twitter.

So my IPhone 7 plus blew up this morning was not even using it, literally no explanation for this pic.twitter.com/sQ8CJt4Y69

— Bree✨ (@briannaolivas_) February 23, 2017

Olivas tells Mashable her phone wouldn’t turn on Tuesday, so she took it to the Apple Store. After a couple of tests, employees told her the iPhone was fine and it soon began working normally again. She charged the phone near her as she slept that night, and the next morning her boyfriend moved the phone to the dresser. As he went to the bathroom he saw the phone smoking and heard it squealing. It soon caught fire and he “quickly grabbed it and threw it into the restroom,” where it blew up.

Olivas has since turned the phone over to Apple for further testing, with the Cupertino company saying it’ll know more within a week. An Apple spokesperson said the company is in touch with Olivas and is “looking into” the matter.

Photos via Brianna OlivasExploding smartphones have garnered increased attention since Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 was plagued with widespread reports of exploding devices, prompting an “unprecedented” recall of the popular device. Lithium-ion batteries are more prone to malfunctioning and exploding when manufacturers and suppliers don’t take proper care in preparing the batteries for use. For example, Samsung blames the Note 7’s battery problems on a flaw that caused two incompatible parts of the battery came together.

Related Roundup: iPhone 7
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HTC hands out prizes to winners of the first annual Viveport Developer Awards

Why it matters to you

Here are the best apps for the HTC Vive VR system, and if you act fast you can save a bundle on the four best selections.

HTC created its Viveport app store as an easy way for users of its Vive virtual reality (VR) system to locate, purchase, and download new VR apps. Viveport also serves as a place for developers to showcase their apps, allowing them to feature their work somewhere other than the crowded Steam store.

The company also kicked off another effort to spur developers to make apps for the HTC Vive, specifically the Viveport Developer Awards (VDA), which honor — and financially reward — the best apps. That contest has now concluded, and HTC announced the winners on its Vive blog.

More: Viveport Development Awards offer up $500K prize pool for VR devs

The first annual VDA offered up $500,000 in award money to the best apps in four categories. First prize was $50,000, second prize was $30,000, third prize was $15,000, and a special community’s choice winner netted $10,000. Each winning entry along with two runners-up also received an HTC Vive system.

Here are the winners:

First place
Second place
Third place
Runners up
Explore
Apollo 11 VR
Realities
The Body VR

A Chair in a Room: Greenwater, Mars Odyssey

Create
Fantastic Contraption
Soundstage
Paintlab

Kodon, Arcade Artist

Connect
Cloudlands: VR Minigolf
Altspace VR
Engage

World of Diving, SurrealVR

Experience
Allumette
Pearl
Firebird – La Péri

TheBlu, The Night Café: A VR Tribute to Van Gogh

Community
A Chair in a Room: Greenwater

Three of the winners, Penrose Studios, Futuretown, and Northway Games, will join an on-stage discussion panel on March 3, 2017 at the upcoming Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco. If you’re an HTC Vive user, then head over to Viveport to pick up the first-place apps at a 40-percent discount through March 2, 2017.

Google accounts are on the fritz but nobody is getting hacked

When Google gets wonky, everything gets wonky.

If you have a Google account error that says “something has changed” and asks you to log in again, there’s no cause for alarm. Google tells us they know something’s up and it’s not related to any suspicious activity.

We’ve gotten reports about some users being signed out of their accounts unexpectedly. We’re investigating, but not to worry: there is no indication that this is connected to any phishing or account security threats.

Please try to sign-in again at accounts.google.com and if you cannot remember your password, please use this link (g.co/recover) to recover your password. If you use 2-Step Verification, there may have been a delay in receiving your SMS code. Please try again or use backup codes.

OK, cool. Nobody is trying to get into our email accounts, but signing in again isn’t as easy as they make it sound. If whatever is going on glitches your account, all the things logged in with that account can be royally hosed and need to be set up or attached to your account again.

We know Google Wifi went crazy for some users earlier, and they tell us there were “issues with the Google Accounts Engine today” which may be tied into whatever is happening with Gmail, Google Home, and Chromecasts that are being reported as not working tonight.

We’re happy that it’s not a security thing, but it’s still a thing if you’re one of the unlucky people affected. For now, you can follow the advice and log-in again from your phone or computer. Hopefully, Google tells us more if only to satisfy our curiosity.

Google’s Immerse VR series debuts with exploration of racial identity

Google’s virtual reality offerings are taking off. While their engineers develop techniques to simulate user faces hidden behind headsets that will make streaming VR less clunky, the NBA recently released an original show for Daydream VR. But today, the search giant quietly dropped the first episode of its own series, Google Immerse VR, devoted to exploring the nuances and complexities of race, diversity and identity.

The debut follows Dezzie Dimbitsara, a UX designer at Google, as she describes how she and her children navigate society. “You can’t talk about racial identity without talking about racism,” the film begins. From othering comments to the differences between her and her children’s hair, the episode slowly meanders around Dimbitsara’s Parisian home, immersing viewers in a slice-of-life story to fulfill the series’ core mission: “[Investigating] race, diversity, and identity by exploring how real people interact with the world and how the world interacts with them.”

Sure, we regularly get tech advancements heralding more powerful VR-supporting computers and stress-management headset attachments, but Google’s new series is hopefully the sign of a Silicon Valley stepping outside its tech safe zone to confront societal problems. It joins a growing list of amateur and professional creators making VR content in that space:

Source: Google Immerse VR (YouTube)

Here’s what the sporty Huawei Watch 2 looks like in three colours

Huawei is getting ready to launch a second-generation Huawei Watch, and thanks to new leak, we now know how it looks.Android Wear seems to be making a comeback. Determined not to be left out, Huawei is planning to unveil a newer, sportier Huawei Watch at Mobile World Congress at the end of February. The company officially confirmed the watch is coming via a tease earlier this month. Now, Evan Blass at VentureBeat has posted a render of the upcoming device, and it does indeed look rather sporty (and colourful).

The Android Wear 2.0-powered timepiece has cellular capabilities via a nanoSIM card, which will allow the watch to work free from a connected smartphone. We don’t yet know if the SIM option will be available in all models of the Huawei Watch 2, which will be available in black, orange, and speckled grey colours, but Blass previously said at least one model of the Huawei Watch 2 will offer a cellular connection.

Huawei is expected to officially announce the watch alongside its new P10 flagship next week. Check out Pocket-lint’s rumour round-up to see what else the watch might feature. Pocket-lint will be at MWC 2017 to bring you the latest as it happens.

This is the sportier Huawei Watch 2, in three colors https://t.co/kgFCNAWFfd pic.twitter.com/eUK9xivOgg

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) February 23, 2017

Google WiFi, OnHub routers inexplicably crashed today

Google’s smart router projects are supposed to provide hassle-free networking, but today many owners are experiencing just the opposite. Reports are streaming in of nonfunctional Google OnHub and WiFi units pushing little more than a flashing blue light. On Twitter, the Made by Google team is advising users to try setting up again, while a support forum thread that users in need of immediate access should use the credentials printed on the bottom of their devices.

It’s unclear what caused the problem because no update went out today, but judging by reports, running through setup again is enough to get most people back up and running. Some owners with a mesh network are reporting that only one of their devices ever went offline, while there are others who are still disconnected even after a hard reset. Of course, for those with any kind of custom settings that could cause quite a headache. We’ve contacted Google about the issue and will update this post when we receive a response.

Source: Google Support Forum

Disney’s Maker Studios changes strategy and lays off employees

Disney-owned Maker Studios is putting its business through a major overhaul in an effort to become profitable. According to The Wall Street Journal, Disney is laying off around 80 people — some of them are Maker employees, while some are from the House of Mouse’s consumer products unit’s digital-publishing division. This move eliminates job dupes as Disney fully absorbs Maker Studios almost three years after its $675 million acquisition. The layoffs aren’t enough for the YouTube network to start making money, though, so it also plans to shed tens of thousands of creators to concentrate on a chosen few.

The studio will no longer help most of its 60,000 creators gain visibility and sell ads. It aims to work more closely with 300 of its most popular creators with the largest followings instead, as well as those most suited to work with Disney. YouTube creator Alexys Gabrielle, for instance, is making a show that’s a tie-in to the “Oh My Disney” website that features games, interviews and skits promoting the company’s franchises.

Maker Studios has apparently never been profitable despite its status as one of YouTube’s biggest networks. These changes have been in the works for quite a while and have nothing to do with the termination of Pewdiepie’s partnership. One former Maker exec told Digiday that he was excited to join the company after the Disney acquisition. “But when you started to poke around,” he said, “it was obvious there wasn’t much there.”

The studio’s channels might be making hundreds of millions in ad revenue, but it doesn’t own all of its creators’ content. It can’t sell videos to other platforms, and what it can do to make money is very, very limited. The only reason why its ad revenue and views kept on growing was because it added more and more channels.

In addition, Disney reportedly lost interest in investing the kind of money needed to create good original content like what Maker’s rival studios are doing. Clearly, the company is disappointed that the network hasn’t been financially successful like it thought it would be. The troubled network’s future is now uncertain and most likely depends on how well its new strategy performs.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, Digiday

Apple Cut Ties With Supplier Super Micro Computer Over Server Security Concerns

Apple cut ties with server supplier Super Micro Computer in 2016 after unearthing a potential security vulnerability in at least one of its data center servers, reports The Information.

The vulnerability in the server, which was part of Apple’s technical infrastructure powering its web-based services, was discovered in the early months of 2016. According to Super Micro senior vice president of technology Tau Leng, Apple ended its business relationship with Super Micro Computer shortly after uncovering the security issue.

Leng’s account of the incident makes it sound like Apple received bad firmware from an FTP site hosted by Super Micro that may have been infiltrated, which may have compromised the server.

According to Leng, when Apple was asked to provide the version number of the firmware it had downloaded after experiencing issues, Apple provided an invalid number. After that, Apple refused to provide more information to Super Micro.

Mr. Leng said Super Micro regularly provides firmware updates that data center customers like Apple can download from a private “FTP” site, hosted by Super Micro. He said the firmware updates come from outside chip manufacturers–in this case, a networking chip maker that he declined to name.

Sources who spoke to The Information said servers that handled Siri requests and App Store search functionality may have been compromised, but an Apple spokesperson said Apple did not receive bad firmware nor was any customer data stolen.

“Apple is deeply committed to protecting the privacy and security of our customers and the data we store,” the spokesperson told The Information. “We are constantly monitoring for any attacks on our systems, working closely with vendors and regularly checking equipment for malware.”

It’s not quite clear what caused the vulnerability that led to the end of the agreement between Super Micro and Apple, but Apple has since moved on to other server suppliers, increasing orders from ZT and purchasing servers from Inspur.
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