Amazon Developing ‘Voice ID’ Technology for Alexa Assistant

Amazon is building upon the Alexa voice-recognition technology found in its Echo range of speakers so that the virtual assistant can distinguish between individual users based on the sound of their voices.

According to anonymous sources who spoke to TIME, Amazon’s feature would work by matching the person speaking to a pre-recorded voice sample, or “voice print”, to verify the speaker’s identity.

A primary account holder would be able to require a specific voice print to access certain commands. A user would, for example, be able to set it so that a parent’s voice would be required to make a credit card purchase or turn on the coffee machine through the Echo.

Amazon has been developing the feature, internally called Voice ID, since at least the summer of 2015, according to people familiar with the company’s Alexa strategy. The underlying technology is said to have been completed and just needs integrating into Echo speakers, however it’s still unclear when that will happen.

The Voice ID technology would be a first in the smart speaker space and make Echo units easier to share between multiple people under one roof. Currently, Echo users can set up multiple profiles and jump between them, but the user must say “switch accounts” or use the Alexa app to do so. And as for credit card purchases, a four-digit authentication code must be said out loud to confirm them.

It’s unknown at this point whether Voice ID will extend to the many Alexa-enabled third-party devices now available, or if it would be limited to Amazon’s Echo speakers. An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.

Alexa recently became capable of responding to 10,000 skills, according to Amazon. Skills are essentially third-party apps that you can interact with via voice, once they’ve been enabled. The 10,000th skill was Beat the Intro, a music game that tests users’ knowledge and love of music.

AI assistants have become increasingly popular over the past few years, while Apple’s Siri has remained largely unchanged over the past few iOS updates. Last May it was rumored that the company would launch an Echo-like speaker with Siri integration, enabling users to play music, get news headlines, and more, without needing to interact with their iPhone, but further details have been scant.

Tags: Amazon, Amazon Echo, Alexa
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iPhone 8 Will Have Curved OLED Screen and USB-C Connector

Apple’s upcoming iPhone 8 will feature a curved OLED display made by Samsung to differentiate it from two additional new iPhone models, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Tuesday’s report corroborates previous claims from KGI Securities analyst Ming Chi-Kuo that Apple will release three devices this year: Two “S” cycle iPhones with LCD displays to succeed the current iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, as well as a special “10th Anniversary Edition” iPhone 8.

Apple Inc. has decided to adopt a flexible display for one model of the new iPhone coming out this year and has ordered sufficient components to enable mass production, people familiar with the matter said.

According to WSJ’s anonymous sources, Apple will drop the traditional home button on the iPhone 8 in favor of a distinct touch-enabled area on the chin of the handset, also corroborating Ming-Chi Kuo’s claims of a “function area” below the new iPhone’s main display. Additionally, in a new claim likely to cause much debate, the paper reports that Apple will replace the Lightning connector with a USB-C port. Indeed, all of the next iPhones are said to feature a “USB-C port for the power cord and other peripheral devices instead of the company’s original Lightning connector”.

Over recent weeks, reports have clashed over which models will include several purported new features. For example, citing “reliable sources” within Apple’s supply chain, Japanese blog Mac Otakara most recently claimed that only the OLED model will adopt glass casing and wireless charging capabilities, contradicting a Nikkei report and analyst Kuo’s repeated claims that all 2017 iPhones will feature an all-glass design and wireless charging.

Further muddying the waters, Mac Otakara made no mention of the Lightning port being dropped, despite the fact that a USB-C connector would allow newer MacBook or MacBook Pro owners to connect the iPhone 8 to their laptop straight out of the box. On the contrary, Mac Otakara’s sources claimed Apple’s Lightning to USB-C Cable would remain an optional purchase, which just goes to highlight the odd situation that newer Mac owners could find themselves in, should the next iMac and Mac mini models also adopt exclusively USB-C ports, as they are expected to do so. The other possible scenario is that Apple replaces the current USB-A connector on the end of the iPhone Lightning cable with USB-C.

With an edge-to-edge design, the iPhone 8 is said to be similar in size to the 4.7-inch iPhone, but with a display the size of the 5.5-inch iPhone. According to Kuo, it will feature a 5.8-inch display with 5.15 inches of usable area, with the rest dedicated to virtual buttons that will replace the existing Home button. The iPhone 8’s front-facing camera may also include 3D sensing capabilities, allowing it to find the location and depth of objects in front of it, perhaps enabling facial and iris recognition. According to one report, the iPhone 8 could cost upwards of $1,000.

Related Roundup: iPhone 8 (2017)
Tag: The Wall Street Journal
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Google Home Smart Speaker Coming to the U.K. This Spring

Google has revealed to the BBC that it will bring its Home smart connected speaker to the United Kingdom this spring. Rick Osterloh, Google’s vice president of hardware, told BBC reporter Rory Cellan-Jones that he believes the Home’s “AI skills and vast data” will give it the edge over rival Amazon Echo.

A Google spokesperson later confirmed to Engadget on Tuesday that the company’s smart speaker would become available on the U.K market in the second quarter of this year.

Amazon’s Echo range of speakers have been on sale in the U.K. and Germany since September 2016, while rumors of Apple’s entry into the smart home speaker market have yet to be realized on either side of the Atlantic.

Google’s Rick Osterloh tells BBC that Google Home is coming to UK in Q2, claims its AI skills and vast data will help it beat Amazon Echo pic.twitter.com/qs3oZabak0

— Rory Cellan-Jones (@BBCRoryCJ) 28 February 2017

An exact release date and price have yet to be confirmed, but given the weak price of the pound, there’s a good chance the Home will be priced close to its current $129 price tag in the U.S.

Tags: United Kingdom, Google Home
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Seattle man given jail time for a drone accident that knocked a woman unconscious

Why it matters to you

As if drone owners really need it, the news is a reminder to always take care when sending your flying machine skyward.

Sending a clear signal that it has no time for anyone who flies their drone irresponsibly, the Seattle Municipal Court last week landed a local man with a 30-day jail sentence.

Paul Skinner was found guilty of reckless endangerment after an incident at a parade in 2015 where his drone fell from the sky before hitting a woman on the head and knocking her unconscious.

The 38-year-old drone pilot was also fined $500, the Seattle Times reported. Judge Willie Gregory said that while he understood it was an accident, Skinner had nevertheless “engaged in conduct that put people in danger of being injured, which is what happened,” and therefore deserved to be punished.

City Attorney Pete Holmes had pressed for a three-month sentence, describing rogue drone flights as “a serious public-safety issue that will only get worse” as more people buy the remotely controlled flying machines.

Jeffrey Kradel, Skinner’s attorney, told the Times that the sentence was “too severe” for an incident that wasn’t deliberate. He added that in his view the court was using his client to set an example, calling such behavior an improper use of prosecutorial authority.

More: A drone-delivered sausage could cost one Aussie guy $7,000 in fines

The incident occurred in downtown Seattle during the city’s annual Pride Parade two years ago. Skinner, who runs an aerial photography business, was capturing imagery using a two-pound, 18×18-inch drone. The machine reportedly struck a building, sending it tumbling to the ground, where it hit the 27-year-old woman on the head.

Skinner is appealing the verdict and can avoid prison until the matter is re-examined, while a separate hearing will take place in May to determine how much the drone pilot should pay for the woman’s medical treatment.

Rules introduced by the Federal Aviation Administration stipulate that drone pilots “may not operate over any persons not directly participating in the operation.”

Skinner’s prison sentence is believed to the first one imposed by a U.S. court in relation to a reckless drone flight.

This awesome ping-pong robot has just earned a Guinness World Record

Why it matters to you

It’s yet another example of how engineers are creating ever-more deft and skillful robots.

Once unable to “even return a ping-pong ball” but now officially recognized by Guinness World Records for being the “first robot table tennis tutor,” Omron’s imposing bat-holding contraption has evidently come a long way over the last few years.

Awarded for its “unique technological intelligence and educational capabilities,” the unique robot was developed not only to advance the Japanese company’s sensor and control technology, but also to harmonize humans and robots by using it to teach table tennis to human players.

As we can see from the video, Omron’s latest version of its robot is a whiz with the bat, able to comfortably keep a rally going with its human opponent.

Project lead Taku Oya explains that the robot functions using two vision sensors and one motion sensor. “[The] vision sensors identify the movement of the ball, and the motion sensor identifies the movement of the opponent. It also uses a controller that can analyze speed at one thousand times a second. By using these different sensors, it’s able to judge the skill level of the player.”

A fun feature that helped the setup earn its “tutor” label is the LED screen on the table’s net that shows messages of encouragement between points, while also counting the number of shots in a rally.

More: The robot apocalypse is a ways off — watch DARPA droids bite the dust in this video

“At the moment it is a human who teaches a robot how to behave or teach,” Oya said. “But in the next 20 years it may be possible that a robot teaches a robot, or a robot develops a robot.” Wait … wouldn’t that be one backhand smash away from the robot apocalypse?

If Omron’s commanding-looking robot does somehow end up building an army to take over the world, guess you could try to distract them with a few games of ping-pong while the family packs the car. Probably best you let it win.

Mozilla’s first acquisition is bookmarking app Pocket

Pocket is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mozilla.

Pocket is one of the best options if you’re looking to save articles for reading later on your Android phone, but the app originally started out as a Firefox extension nine years ago. So it’s only fitting that the company behind Pocket, Read It Later, is being acquired by Mozilla.

Pocket became Firefox’s default read-it-later service in 2015, and Mozilla said that it developed “a shared vision and belief in the opportunity to do more together” during the integration, which culminated in the acquisition. Pocket will serve as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mozilla, and the service’s source code will eventually become a part of Mozilla’s open source project.

Pocket CEO Nate Weiner commented on the acquisition, stating that Mozilla’s “extraordinary” resources and global scale will lead to the creation of a better product:

Pocket will continue on as a wholly-owned, independent subsidiary of Mozilla Corporation. We’ll be staying in our office, and our name will still be on the wall. Our team isn’t changing and our existing roadmap has been reinforced and is clearer than ever. In fact, we have a few major updates up our sleeves that we are really excited to get into your hands in the coming months.

How does Mozilla fit into this equation? They’re adding fuel to our rocketship. We have worked closely with Mozilla as we partnered with their Firefox team, and established a deep trust with their team and vision. They have extraordinary resources, global scale, and reach to put Pocket in more places, and help us build an even better product, faster.

Together we are going to continue expanding the reach of high-quality content, while staying true to the values that drive both Pocket and Mozilla alike: Protecting the openness of the web and creating a content platform built around trust and privacy.

As we have continued to grow both as a product and as a company, one thing hasn’t changed: Our passion for building a product we love, and the respect we have for you, our users. We hope that each of you know that we wake up every day thinking about how to make Pocket better for you. And starting today, now under the Mozilla banner, we’ll be doing just the same, for a long time to come.

Xiaomi Mi 5c is the first phone to be powered by in-house Surge S1 SoC

Xiaomi’s first in-house chipset is now official.

In a bid to reduce its reliance on Qualcomm and MediaTek, Xiaomi has launched its in-house chipset, dubbed the Surge S1. The SoC is built on a 28nm node and offers eight Cortex A53 cores in two clusters. The first cluster sees four cores clocked at up to 2.2GHz, whereas the second cluster sees two cores at 1.4GHz. The chipset also offers a Mali T860 GPU and a 14-bit dual ISP.

The first phone to be powered by the Surge S1 is the Xiaomi 5c, a budget variant of last year’s Mi 5. The phone features a 5.15-inch Full HD display, 3GB of RAM, 64GB internal storage, 12MP camera with f/2.2 lens and 1.25-micron pixels, 8MP front shooter, Wi-Fi ac, LTE with VoLTE, Bluetooth 4.1, USB-C, and a 2860mAh battery with fast charging (9V/2A).

Benchmarks? You be the judge. #SurgeS1 pic.twitter.com/dZ1RoVbKl5

— Mi (@xiaomi) February 28, 2017

Xiaomi shared a Geekbench score that shows the Surge S1 beating out the Snapdragon 625 and MediaTek’s Helio P10. We’ll have to wait until we get our hands on the Mi 5c to reserve judgement on whether the SoC can deliver in real-world usage. One positive aspect of using a custom chipset is that Xiaomi will be able to deliver updates faster.

The phone will go up for sale in China starting March 3 for ¥1,499 ($220), and as of now there’s no mention of availability outside of Xiaomi’s home market.

Samsung leader will be indicted for bribery and embezzlement

Following his arrest, Samsung Vice-Chairman Lee Jae-yong will be indicted on charges of bribery, embezzlement and two other crimes, according to Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal. It’s the start of legal proceedings that could put Lee in jail for years, stalling a planned succession due to his father’s heart attack and hospitalization. Four other executives were charged, including Corporate Strategy Office Vice Chairman Choi Gee-sung and President Chang Choong-ki.

The case could eventually bring down Korea’s President Park Geun-hye, too. Samsung’s Lee allegedly directed around $37 million to various bodies controlled by a friend of Park in exchange for backing of a merger between two Samsung affiliates. That would have firmed up Lee’s control of Samsung Electronics, the company behind Galaxy Note 7 and upcoming Galaxy S8 smartphones. Park herself was impeached in December and could be removed from office in weeks.

Samsung admitted it made the payments, but denied they were for political gain, the WSJ says. Prosecutors have reportedly spent months building the case and the trial could drag on for as long as 18 months. Lee can seek bail after the indictment, but his succession to Chairman, already delayed by the failure of the Galaxy Note 7, while likely be stalled further or halted completely.

Via: Bloomberg

Source: WSJ

Raspberry Pi Zero W is a $10 computer with WiFi and Bluetooth

Although major Raspberry Pi announcements are very few and far between, you know that when there is one, it’s worth paying attention. Take for example the Raspberry Pi Zero — the $5 (£4) board that apparently came out of nowhere in October 2015 and offered 40 percent more computing power than the original Pi. It’s been a year since the last major unveiling, when we met the Raspberry Pi 3, but the Foundation is back today with a brand new product that nestles neatly between its credit-card sized computer and its flagship board. It’s called the Raspberry Pi Zero W.

In the case of the Raspberry Pi Zero W, the W signifies exactly what is new: wireless connectivity. It boasts exactly the same specifications (1GHz single-core Broadcom BCM2835 CPU, 512MB of RAM, 40-pin header) as its predecessor but the Zero W adds both 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 to the existing Zero design. If you had a cool idea for a low-cost maker project that was scuppered by the Zero’s lack of wireless connectivity, now might be the time to revisit the idea.

The Zero W’s new features do come at a cost, however. The Zero will stay at $5 (£4) but the Zero W is priced at $10 (£9.60) plus tax. The Raspberry Pi Foundation is also offering new injection-molded cases with interchangeable lids that are smaller versions of the official Raspberry Pi case that went on sale almost two years ago.

At $10 (£9.60), the Zero W is still fantastic value for money. Makers have already used the DIY board to create homemade security cameras and build their own retro gaming machines, but with WiFi and Bluetooth now on-board, those projects might become even easier to build and maintain.

Source: ModMyPi (UK), Pimoroni (UK), Pi Hut (UK), Adafruit (US), CanaKit (US)

Mi 5c is the first smartphone to use Xiaomi’s own chipset

After wowing the crowd with the gorgeous Mi MIX last October, Xiaomi is now back with a more humble phone but with a twist. The new Mi 5c is the first smartphone to carry Xiaomi’s very own chipset, the octa-core Surge S1, and it’s hitting the Chinese mid-range market with a price of 1,499 yuan or about $220 on March 3rd. Much like its earlier variants, the Mi 5c features a 5.15-inch 1080p display with 94.4-percent NTSC gamut and 550 nit brightness. It comes with 3GB of LPDDR3 RAM plus 64GB of eMMC 5.0 storage, along with a front-facing fingerprint reader, dual-Nano SIM slots and China Mobile radio with VoLTE support.

Thanks to the new chip’s lower power consumption, the Mi 5c went with a smaller 2,860 mAh battery, thus achieving a slimmer metallic body at just 7.09mm thick in return. Should you find yourself running low on juice, the 9V/2A quick charge support will come in handy. As for photography, the 12-megapixel f/2.2 main camera features an unnamed sensor with 1.25um pixels, which is larger than the common 1.12um offerings on many recent phones but will no doubt be hindered by that slower aperture; not to mention the lack of optical stabilization as well. The front camera, however, should be a safe bet with its 8-megapixel resolution plus a nice f/2.0 aperture.

But enough about the phone. The Surge S1 chipset had been an ongoing project since Xiaomi subsidiary Pinecone’s establishment on October 16th, 2014. According to Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun, Pinecone finished its first chip design on July 25th the following year, and it received the first sample chip on September 19th. Then on the 24th, his team made the first phone call using the chip’s modem, followed by a successful screen boot-up two nights later. But it wasn’t until 17 months later i.e. today when the chip is finally good to go.

Given the timeline, it’s no surprise that the Surge S1 is still based on TSMC’s 28nm HPC+ process (as opposed to something more recent, such as 16nm), but one has to start somewhere. Its processor consists of eight battery-friendly Cortex-A53 cores, four of which are clocked at 2.2GHz and the other four at 1.4GHz. For graphics, there’s a Mali-T860 MP4 GPU which is good enough for the average game. Simply put, don’t expect the Surge S1 to match the performance of other high-end chips; it’s closer to the likes of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 625 and MediaTek’s Helio P20.

While the Surge S1 only has China Mobile radio at the moment, Xiaomi should still pose as a serious threat to other chip makers in the developing markets. MediaTek in particular will be the biggest loser, should Xiaomi choose to cut out the middle man and drop MediaTek entirely for its popular Redmi devices in the future. And of course, it’s only a matter of time before Xiaomi catches up with the competition with better processes and modems.

Source: Xiaomi