Giphy’s latest app is exclusively for animated stickers

When is a GIF not a GIF? Well, when it’s pronounced JIF, for one; but also, when it’s actually a sticker. Blurring this boundary is lord of the looping image Giphy, which recently introduced a neat, educational set of signing GIFs — or a new toolkit for creating complex reaction memes, depending on how you look at it. Getting back to tomfoolery, the company is launching Giphy Stickers today.

Giphy Stickers isn’t an entirely new app. Instead of wading into uncharted waters alone, Giphy has acquired existing iOS, Android and iMessage app Imoji, animated its entire sticker library, added a bunch of new ones, and updated the in-app creation feature so you can make your own, moving stickers. Oh, and rebranded the thing to Giphy Stickers, of course.

These GIF/emoji hybrids won’t just be available to liven up your group chats or social posts on smartphones. All will also feature in a new channel on Giphy’s regular homepage and are intended, as the company puts it, “to help you communicate all your feels, even when you can’t put them into words.”

Source: Giphy, (iOS), (Android)

Google’s Uptime is all about snarky YouTube parties

Last year, Google created Area 120, an incubator where employees with (approved) ideas can spend their “20 percent time” on side projects. One of the groups has just released Uptime, an app that lets you meet friends, share YouTube videos and add stickers, “sparkles,” hearts and snarky comments. You can search for video content within the app, which can also will help you find friends “based on common connections within Uptime,” according to the FAQ. Ironically, it’s only available on iOS and not Google’s Android, at least for now.

The app is not unlike a feature called “Video Party” that we first saw on Microsoft’s now-defunct So.cl. Like that app, Uptime lets you watch YouTube videos together with others and make comments, but not to record or stream your own videos. It’s also a way to get daily video recommendations from friends so that you won’t miss the cat or kid video du jour. Other apps like Sean Parker’s Airtime give you similar YouTube party features but also let you chat over video.

It would make a lot of sense for Google to integrate the app into YouTube, rather than having it work as a standalone product. If it is planning to do that, running it in a limited way on iOS only would let the Area 120 group develop the features in a controlled way. If you have an iPhone and want to try it out, you can now grab it here.

Source: Uptime

Facebook bars use of its social data for surveillance tools

Twitter now has a key ally in its fight against surveillance tools: its biggest rival. Facebook has updated its policies to explicitly forbid developers from using its data (including Instagram’s) to create surveillance tools that target its users. The social network says it has already cracked down on these monitoring platforms for violating existing policies in the past several months, but the new approach theoretically eliminates any ambiguity about the company’s views.

The move comes after the ACLU, Color of Change and other organizations called out both Facebook and Twitter for not doing enough to prevent law enforcement from easily tracking protesters using social network data. The groups argue that social surveillance tools have a chilling effect on free speech. You’re less likely to speak out if you know police will start watching your every move in response, and there’s a concern that you may be falsely implicated in criminal behavior simply because you posted in the same general location as a handful of protesters that broke the law.

This doesn’t necessarily close the book on the surveillance issue. The ACLU views the policy as just a “first step” — it now wants Facebook to properly enforce the policy through both automated and human-controlled means, and quickly give developers the boot if they’re found violating the rules. Facebook clearly thinks that’s already the case, but the proof will come if and when a developer is found misusing Facebook data in the future — who’ll find them first, and will they face swift discipline?

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Facebook, ACLU

Nintendo Switch Vulnerable to Hacking Through Outdated Version of Apple’s WebKit Browser Engine

iOS hacker qwertyoruiop has discovered that an old iOS 9.3 WebKit vulnerability lies hidden within Nintendo’s latest home console/portable hybrid, the Nintendo Switch, and subsequently hacked the console in the process (via SlashGear). The exploit lies in the Switch’s limited web browser functionality, which allows users to sync up with Twitter and Facebook as well as connect to public Wi-Fi hotspots, and is all run by Apple’s open source browser engine WebKit.

The Switch’s version of WebKit is older than the one currently running on up-to-date iOS and macOS devices, however, allowing Nintendo’s device to become vulnerable to a collection of critical exploits that plagued iOS 9.3 last summer. One, named “Pegasus,” was a highly sophisticated exploit that installed itself within an iOS device through a link sent via a text message. Apple eventually addressed and fixed these issues with iOS 9.3.5.

that’s just how it goes pic.twitter.com/ztkFrbjz5u

— qwertyoruiop (@qwertyoruiopz) March 11, 2017

For unknown reasons, Nintendo opted to include a version of WebKit that doesn’t have these fixes, allowing qwertyoruiop to use an existing iOS WebKit jailbreak, remove any iOS-specific code, and tweak it so it runs on the Switch. The existence of a known exploit running on Switch points towards a rushed release, which was already believed to be the case since the company’s fiscal year ends March 31, 2017 and the Switch launched March 3.

Developer LiveOverflow yesterday published a proof of concept video on the Switch WebKit exploit, further detailing how the bug originating on Apple’s devices can be used to hack a Nintendo Switch.

The userland exploit “doesn’t mean much for the end user,” according to Wololo, because it hasn’t revealed any detailed information on the Switch yet, nor does it hand over full kernel access to hackers. As the news slowly makes the rounds online, it’s most likely that Nintendo will add in a patch to the old WebKit exploit in a future update to the Switch.

Tags: Nintendo, Nintendo Switch
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TomTom Adventurer review: Great for the great outdoors

The TomTom Adventurer takes the company’s existing sports watch line-up – as familiar in the Runner or Spark – with the added twist of a barometer for additional outdoor activity tracking abilities.

TomTom is clearly looking to cement its place in sport devices, an offshoot of a business that was once focused on in-car GPS devices. In addition to its variety of products the company is also striving to improve its app offering to create an experience that’s more encompassing than previous efforts.

With strong competition from the likes of the Garmin Fenix 3 and Polar V800, the TomTom Adventurer’s hook is that it doesn’t cost an absolute fortune. Does that mean its compromised from the off?

TomTom Adventurer review: Design

• 22 x 25mm monochrome display
• Waterproof to 40m
• Four-way controller
• Enhanced strap

The TomTom Adventurer’s body is exactly the same as the company’s existing devices: a single-piece body that fits into the separate strap. The only physical difference is a small change in the moulding on the rear to incorporate the barometer sensor.

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The biggest visual difference you’ll spot is the strap styling. It’s slightly more substantial, but we really like it. The buckle works nicely and the materials make this a comfortable watch to wear on long activities or even casually through the day. The strap also has a slightly raised lip to the front around the display, designed to add a little more protection for the screen.

As you can swap straps, there’s nothing to stop you buying a different version when you fancy a change, different colour or style. We daresay you’ll be able to buy the Adventurer strap for other watch models too if you’re just drawn to the look of this watch, rather than the features. As it is, this strap is much easier to change size on the move, perhaps loosening after a long time wearing as your wrist swells.

As with other TomTom devices, there’s a monochrome display (no fancy battery-sapping colour here), and a four-way controller beneath it curling down onto your wrist. There are no other buttons, no touchscreen to get to grips with, just that four-way control.

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There’s waterproofing to 40m/5ATM, meaning that is a watch that you can swim in, shower in, snowboard in, without having to worry about water damage. 

TomTom Adventurer review: Functions and features

• Optical heart-rate sensor
• Barometer
• GPS tracking
• Bluetooth music with 3GB internal storage

There’s no real difference from other devices in the TomTom family and there’s also a lot of overlap in terms of features too. That’s a downside, because there’s no real variety in design and TomTom’s sports devices are therefore a little confusing.

The Spark is aimed at fitness, the Runner is aimed at runners, but both are the same: same prices, same design, same features, same experience, although there are various tiers of each – GPS, HRM, music. The only difference is the packaging.

• TomTom Spark 3 review: Getting better with age

The Adventurer essentially parachutes itself in at the top of the existing collection with that barometer hardware opening up some new features. As this watch will more accurately detect a change in altitude, it offers more accuracy and more interesting stats for outdoor sports, like hiking, skiing and snowboarding – features you don’t get on the other models.

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In some areas the experience is very much the same – running, gym training and cycling, for example – although one of the additions is 3D distance, more accurately taking into account the change in elevation along your route.

That makes the TomTom Adventurer a more natural choice for outdoor sports where hills are involved, so might appeal to the likes of adventure racers or hikers, fell runners or just cyclists who want to see altitude more accurately. For skiers and snowboarders there’s automatic lift detection so you don’t have to poke the button to stop your watch. There’s also a display of the run you’ve just completed, so you can geek out over the stats before you hit it again.

Aside from the additional information that can be gleaned from the extra sensor, the TomTom Adventurer offers all the features of the top Spark/Runner model, so it has local music playback via Bluetooth headphones (not included), GPS, heart rate and full-time step tracking, as well as sleep tracking. 

It also offers the route function introduced on the Spark 3/Runner 3, meaning you can trace your way back to where you started, although this is only a rough route trace rather than any sort of visual mapping.

This also supports GPX trail uploads, so you can add route data to follow. Again, this isn’t Garmin Epix style mapping, it’s a trace of the route to aid your navigation, paired with the compass, rather than replacing a map. You can, for example, find your way back the route using the compass.

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Perhaps a downside on the hardware front is the lack of an automatic light sensor. There is a “night” mode hiding in the options menu that will let you turn on illumination for the display. The positive is that you can have it off during the day and that saves battery. But it’s a bit of a fiddle to get to it if it’s dark.

In terms of the user interface, it’s something we wish was easier to access: the old Nike+ Sportswatch with TomTom (where this all started in 2011), would illuminate when you slapped it. A simple option for rotational illumination – as you get on Android Wear – would be a nice addition here.

• Polar M600 review: Top-notch smartwatch and fitness tracker fusion

TomTom Adventurer review: Performance and accuracy

• Excellent heart-rate tracking
• Useful and accessible altitude features
• 24hr hiking use, 11hr GPS tracking

We’ve long been fans of the optical heart-rate tracker on the rear of these TomTom devices: we’ve found the TomTom Spark 3 to hold its own against a heart rate chest strap on rival Garmin devices, and with greater reliability, i.e., less lag, than some other wrist-based devices. That performance is repeated on the Adventurer, returning consistent heart-rate tracking.

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We’ve also found the GPS to be generally good. This is more of a level playing field, with many devices using similar setups to track GPS position using on-watch sensors. The trick that TomTom attempts to use is taking a “QuickGPS” hotfix from your phone when it syncs. This uses data gathered from the phone’s location to give the Adventurer a head start in rapidly finding your new location.

Generally this feature works well. Like the Apple Watch or some Android Wear devices, GPS location is quickly found, whereas some standalone devices will have to search a little harder (and longer) to figure out exactly where they are. That said, before you start a GPS-tracked activity, you’ll have to wait for the watch to locate itself. Cold starts with no phone sync can see you standing around a few minutes waiting before you can actually start.

Once locked in, the tracking features are plenty capable. There’s some variance, naturally, but we’ve found the Adventurer to be accurate to distance measurements on a map and to comparable wrist-worn devices. This TomTom is designed to take into account changes in elevation, too, to give you a more accurate picture of the distance you actually travelled, rather than just as the crow flies.

The barometer adds an altitude dimension that gives you a little more than standard GPS altimeter results. You can check the elevation at any time on the watch, and you can also check the gradient. This is fun, perhaps not hugely useful: you’ll know it’s steep and knowing the percentage perhaps doesn’t add much to your metrics, but each to their own. You could, of course, compare this to contour lines on a map for at-a-glance confirmation of your location. Yes, you’re supposed to be walking down this -24 per cent slope.

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We do like the change in ascent and descent figures, however, because it’s much easier to visualise than something like gradient. And who doesn’t like to know that they’ve climbed a long way?

Transferring this to real maps, knowing the elevation – which you often don’t get to see on a normal GPS watch – means you know how much more climbing you can expect to do to hit the summit, for example. For walkers in the hills, it’s a nice additional piece of information, where speed, pace or heart rate might be less important, but that on-the-fly Naismith’s estimation might be aided with this additional information.

The Adventurer pulls these things together logically with a hiking, ski and snowboard modes for those playing outdoors. The swim, run, bike, gym and other modes are more common and basically the same as the Spark and Runner, but those outdoor modes are really what makes the TomTom Adventurer fit for its job.

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The Adventurer claims 11-hours of GPS tracking per charge. That’s a pretty long day event, although you can extend that to 24-hours in hiking mode, which might see you through a 100km trail, for example. Using all the functions – that’s GPS, heart rate and music playback – will see it to around five hours per charge, which should see you through a marathon.

TomTom also claims that you’ll get up to three weeks of general tracking from this watch, which is step-tracking and not much else. For us we’ve managed about a week, using it for a couple of runs and daily wear. In that sense it’s not too different to other sports watches, and significantly better in casual wear than most smart watches which will only give you two days of use at the most. 

Most “fitness” smartwatches purport to offer a hiking mode or similar, but the endurance of devices like the TomTom Adventurer, Garmin Vivoactive HR or Suunto Ambit 3 Vertical makes them more appealing to those who want a tool for the job, rather than something that does everything.

TomTom Adventurer review: Sports app

• New Sports app improves connection
• Life-style approach to data
• Syncs with Strava, MyFitnessPal and others

We’ve criticised previous TomTom devices because of the smartphone experience that goes along with it. This has changed recently, however, with the launch of the new TomTom Sports app. This replaces the MySports app and it’s much better overall. 

Starting at the beginning,: there’s still a need to register your watch by plugging it into a computer USB. This element is still a little backwards, but via the app on your PC or Mac you can then sync the watch to your account. A similar process takes place on your Android or iPhone, downloading the app and connecting to your watch.

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In the past, we’ve found this to be a troublesome point in our relationship with the TomTom Spark/Runner. Just getting it to sync was hit and miss. Things are much better with the new app. That’s a big connectivity hurdle removed.

We said previously that you can upload GPX files for trails, but you’ll have to do that via a PC connection. You can’t upload a file through the app on your phone, so it’s slightly less mobile than you might want it to be. Again, if you want music on your Adventurer, you’ll have to upload a playlist from your PC, rather than being about to sensibility select tracks from your phone. It means that in general, you need to be a little more considered about what you do.

With all that said, the MySport area of your TomTom account on the website gives a good area to view your activities and will give you routes with more detailed mapping, so if you’ve been on a longer trek, for example, you’ll probably find yourself back on the website.

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The app also does a reasonable job of representing your activity and it covers everything from a breakdown in your activity to your daily stats, like your resting heart rate and your achievements. It’s perhaps not as sophisticated as Polar Flow or Garmin Connect, taking more of a lifestyle approach than those other apps that are a little more serious, stemming from the heart-rate tracking running crowd. 

There are some interesting highlights in the new TomTom Sport app. It highlights your activity achievements with gold, silver or bronze icons, making it easy to glance down and find your longest or fastest, for example. It also attempts to pull out trends, saying that your distance is increasing, but here it never really seems to be as authentic as Polar Flow’s direct session feedback, or Garmin’s recovery stats.

The app will also share data with other platforms like Strava and perhaps more critically MyFitnessPal, which will in turn share this data with a wide range of other platforms, so you can get your workout data in Fitbit, for example (but not steps). All these connections, however, need to be managed through the website, rather than in the app.

• Which Fitbit is right for me?

But that’s really where this device ends. Unlike the Garmin Vivoactive HR that’s a natural rival at a similar price, this offers very little customisation and no smartphone notifications. We don’t think that’s a make or break omission, but for some it will lessen the appeal.

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Overall, the TomTom app position is a lot better though. It’s better connected and more reliable – and that was our biggest bugbear with the previous version. Importantly, you can get to the information you want fairly easily too.

Verdict

The TomTom Adventurer is the stand-out device in the company’s line-up of fitness devices. It’s the most comprehensively specced and the most interesting, because it uses the additional data it gathers to provide more interesting results.

That might not appeal to all, however: this is a watch for those who want to track stats in outdoor activities and for, say, your average runner or cyclist, it might be offering functions you never actually want to use.

The Adventurer puts in a good performance in a number of areas: the heart-rate tracking is solid, the GPS tracking accurate, and battery life ample. The stats represented by the altimeter correlate with those we cross reference on other maps.

The new TomTom app is also better connected than previous efforts, so you’re only really left dealing with a design that’s starting to get very familiar and a watch that’s not the most widely connected.

Overall, the TomTom Adventurer should appeal to those who play in the great outdoors. If you run, swim and cycle regularly, it will take care of those things, but stepping beyond is where the Adventurer is more useful. This is for those who like to know altitude in real-time, who want to cross-reference with a map and like to know how far they’ve climbed on that day in the hills.

The alternatives to consider…

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Garmin Fenix 3

The Fenix 3 has been the poster boy of active watches for a couple of years. It makes a distinction between Garmin’s wide range of sports devices pitches at runners, and gives you watch that’s fully-loaded with sensors and offering a premium design. With that comes high pricing, but a feature set that leaves almost nothing out. There different versions, however, so if you want heart rate, you’ll have to make sure you pick the right model.

Read the full preview: Garmin Fenix 3: Adventure ready for any sport

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Polar V800

The Polar V800 is best known as the device of choice for serious runners and multi-sport athletes, but it also includes a barometer to track your altitude. It’s also watchproof, but it relies on a chest strap for heart rate, rather than optical sensors. This makes it more accurate, but more cumbersome. The Polar V800 is a serious tool, but tracking your activity on the road or track is its forte, and it’s not so well placed with it comes to adventure activity.

Read the full review: Polar V800: Tempting for triathletes

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Garmin Vivoactive HR

The most natural rival for the TomTom Adventurer is the Garmin Vivoactive HR. This compact device also offers wrist-based heart rate tracking and GPS location, but unlike a lot of running watches, it also features a barometer to give you accurate altitude data. In addition to 24/7 activity and sleep tracking, the Vivoactive HR also offers smartphone notifications, bringing more connected options and the Garmin platform is a little more serious in presenting your data.

Read the preview: Garmin Vivoactive HR: The complete training solution

Oceans are warming faster, expect more floods

A team of researchers have successfully found a way to error-correct and clean up historical oceanic temperature data. The champagne will stay in the refrigerator, however, since the new information offers up more bad news on the state of the planet. It turns out that we’ve been grossly underestimating the warming effects of climate change for the last half a century.

John Abraham, one of the study’s co-authors, explained in The Guardian the process whereby this old data was cleaned up. Historically, oceanic temperature readings were mostly conducted along major shipping routes in the northern hemisphere. These figures were corrected for known biases and then run through a new climate model that produced more reliable and accurate information.

The result is that the researchers say that our oceans, and our planet, has warmed 13 percent faster than we originally thought. Our oceans play a vital part in protecting us against climate change by storing much of our excess heat in its depths. But as the seas get warmer, the knock-on effect is the more extreme weather events that we’ve seen with more regularity over the last few years.

The long and short of it is that the need for rapid decarbonization, reduction in methane emissions and other climate-causing gases is more urgent than ever. It’s a good thing that one of the world’s largest polluters is deliberately turning a blind eye to the issue for… oh.

Via: Gizmodo

Source: Science, The Guardian

Vertu sells its luxury phone business to a Turkish exile

Vertu has been sailing rough waters ever since it Nokia spun it out, and it’s not clear that things will get any calmer. The Telegraph reports that the luxury phone brand has been bought by Baferton, a company backed by Turkish exile Hakan Uzan, for about £50 million ($61 million). The move puts Vertu into the hands of a family whose relationship with Nokia is… troublesome, to say the least.

The Uzans took out loans from Nokia and Motorola to form a Turkish carrier, Telsim, only for the company to default after the tech stock crash at the turn of the century. While Telsim would eventually become the backbone of Vodafone’s business in Turkey, allegations flew that the Uzans had used company funds for personal luxuries. Lawsuits from Nokia and Motorola put the Uzans on the hook for billions of dollars (they’re still disputing the claims), and the Turkish government’s move to seize assets prompted the family to go into exile. Hakan Uzan in particular was found in contempt of court after he didn’t attend a hearing in relation to the fraud, but he successfully appealed the sentence. Suffice it to say that Nokia likely wouldn’t have approached him for a sale years ago.

As for why his outfit is buying Vertu? He’s not saying much — he believes that it represents a “powerful brand with an acknowledged market niche,” and that he’ll provide the cash to help the company reach its “full potential.” The question is whether or not he’ll push for meaningful change at the phone maker, which has struggled since the rise of smartphones eliminated much of its cachet. The company eventually got with the program and started making smartphones, but it continues to be slightly behind the curve in terms of specs — you’re only buying its phones for the posh materials and concierge services. Uzan will have to convince the wealthy that there’s a reason to spend four-digit sums on Vertu phones when mainstream handsets offer cutting-edge features for a fraction of the price.

Via: The Verge

Source: The Telegraph

Apple Music Competitor ‘Pandora Premium’ Launching This Week With Invite-Only Access

Pandora’s own entry into the streaming music market, called Pandora Premium, is officially launching this week to a select group of invitees who sign up for a chance to gain access on the company’s website. Pandora Premium is the result of the company’s acquisition of “key assets” and employees from Rdio back in 2015. Late last year, Pandora finally detailed what its new Premium service would look like at a special event.

Unlike in the base Pandora app, Pandora Premium allows its subscribers full, on-demand control of what they listen to thanks to the inclusion of playlists and a personalized search feature, which surfaces unique items based on each user’s own listening history instead of what’s most popular at the time. The service includes learning algorithms that can auto-fill playlists after adding a few songs to match the previous tracks’ genre of music.

Image via Engadget
Users will also be able to download songs to listen offline, browse content they’ve previously thumbed up, and view Pandora Premium’s Browse section to see curated artists aimed specifically at their own music tastes. Those with Pandora Plus will get six months of Pandora Premium for free, and following the small launch of invite-only users, Pandora Premium will open up for all users in the next few weeks.

Playlists, not worklists: Start a playlist with one or two songs of your choice, tap “Add Similar Songs” and put the power of Pandora’s Music Genome Project to work to create the perfect playlist for any activity, mood or party.
All your thumbs up: Every song you’ve thumbed up on Pandora is immediately available in your “My Thumbs Up” playlist. Thumb up a few tracks on any Pandora radio station and Premium will automatically create a new playlist of these songs too.
New music for you… and only you: Browse is stocked with personalized suggestions for the latest releases from current and soon-to-be favorites whether you listen to classical, metal, jazz, hip hop, country, and everything in between.
Offline mode: Download albums, songs stations or playlists you want and bring an end to those moments of deafening silence when you lose a signal.
Search that knows you: Pandora’s team of curators, music analysts and data scientists have sifted through tens of millions of tracks to help you quickly find what you really want. No more wading through covers, karaoke versions or tribute tracks to get to your favorite tune.

A few members of the press have had the chance to use Pandora Premium and shared their thoughts online today. Wired said that the new service offers features expected of modern paid streaming services, but “there’s really no reason for a Spotify or Apple Music user to switch to Pandora Premium.” In an interview with The Verge, Pandora CEO Tim Westergren said that he wants Pandora Premium to be the number one streaming service — above Spotify and Apple Music — within five years.

“We have very grand ambitions for what this can be,” Westergren said. “If we look around at the space right now, we just don’t think that there’s a product that’s done it right. No one has solved the ease of use and personalization part of the on-demand world. I don’t think there’s really a true premium product out there yet… we think we’re bringing something really different here.”

In an update last December, Apple Music topped 20 million subscribers after 18 months on the market. Apple’s and Pandora’s rival, Spotify, announced that it reached 50 million paid subscribers earlier this month.

To get on the invite list for Pandora Premium’s free trial, visit the company’s website here. Invites will be sent out on March 15.

Tag: Pandora Premium
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It’s the 1940s again: IBM’s Scott Crowder on the infancy of quantum computers

IBM Q isn’t vaporware. It’s a project years-in-the-making that could help quantum computation reach its massive potential. The future of quantum computers may arrive sooner than you think.

When news arrived of IBM’s move to offer the first commercially available universal quantum computer last week, it was characterized as a “handoff” from IBM Research to IBM Systems. According to the company’s CTO and vice president of quantum computing, technical strategy, and systems, Scott Crowder, that’s not entirely the case.

“It’s not quite a ‘handoff,’ it’s really a partnership,” explained Crowder. “This is definitely a transition point from it being pure science, pure research, to also being engineering, and development, and commercialization.”

“But this is the ‘40s,” he continued, drawing a comparison to a defining era in the development of classical computers. “This is not the ‘60s or ‘70s, this is the 1940s. We’re still in the very early days; we’re still driving a lot of the basic fundamentals, at the same time that we’re trying to make the systems accessible to a wider group of people.”

People often wonder how quantum computation will impact their day-to-day life. By offering the first commercially available universal quantum computer, IBM hopes to find out.

Bringing quantum computers into the real world

IBM’s press release about its upcoming plans for quantum hardware was packed with potential applications for the technology, and animated quotes from company personnel and experts in the field. By contrast, it was light on details of when its quantum computers will be released. The company’s announcement pledged that universal quantum computers will be delivered to partners “over the next few years.” It also stated that aims to construct systems with around 50 qubits “in the next few years.”

We’re still in the very early days; we’re still driving a lot of the basic fundamentals.

The fact that only a vague timeframe has been made public might lead some to believe that IBM Q is an attempt to secure a spot at the quantum table without setting any plans in stone. However, Crowder maintains that there’s a much firm schedule behind closed doors.

“Yes, we have a rigid definition of ‘the next few years’ internally,” he laughed. “We announced that our intention is to offer systems to a select group of industry partners this year. We’ve said that we’d upgrade them to roughly 50-qubit size within the next few years.”

IBM Q is not a project conceived for good press coverage alone. In fact, Crowder specifically referred to the company’s intention to make quantum systems “real,” rather than just being “PowerPoint presentations and vaporware.”

More: IBM plans to build the first commercially available universal quantum computer

While the specifics of the timeframe are being kept under wraps, IBM has high hopes that IBM Q can help foster the next evolution of quantum computing. And while the company isn’t ready to share a detailed schedule with the public, it has no such reservations about delineating how its quantum hardware differs from other systems on the market.

What’s in a Name?

Unless you’ve been following the development of quantum computing very closely, you may have been confused when IBM announced the first commercially available universal quantum computer last week, as D-Wave has been supplying quantum hardware to enterprise users for several years.

However, D-Wave has been criticized for the way it presents its hardware. The company promotes its products based on their qubit count — its most recent system has access to 2,000 qubits, which is far more than IBM’s aspiration of producing a 50-qubit system in the next few years. However, the two strands of hardware can’t be compared directly, as D-Wave builds quantum annealers, which can only tackle certain problems. IBM is working on universal quantum computers which, like a classical computer, can tackle many types of problems.

“I think for the folks who are deeply into this area, they understand the differences,” said Crowder. “But to the average technologist, even, it’s really confusing.”

“What we’re offering is not a fixed-function system, it’s a universal system,” he added. “But more importantly than that, the power of quantum computing that has everybody really excited is this concept that you can explore an exponential space with it.”

Crowder is referring to the concept of complete quantum entanglement, which allows qubits to occupy a wider swathe of states than the binary on/off of traditional bits. It would only take around 40 or 50 qubits in this state to create a quantum computer that can’t be simulated on a classical computer. At present, there’s some debate as to whether D-Wave’s hardware can offer these advantages over traditional systems, even at much higher qubit counts.

Even in its current form, IBM’s quantum hardware is a step beyond what’s previously been offered commercially. But to fulfil its lofty ambitions for the project, the company isn’t just looking for customers; it’s looking for partners.

Like ‘Early Access,’ but for quantum computers

IBM expects to roll out its first “early access” quantum systems to select industry partners by the end of 2017. However, this won’t be a traditional transaction in terms of purchasing hardware from a manufacturer — the company isn’t just paying lip service when it refers to early adopters as “partners.”

“For the first couple that we do, we definitely want to have partners that we will be working with very closely,” said Crowder. “We hope to find partners that are driving the ecosystem.”

IBM’s partners will benefit from this set-up, as the hardware itself will be maintained and periodically upgraded by the company. A quantum computer has strict requirements in terms of space, temperature, and other practicalities. Keeping the system under IBM’s watchful eye will make it easier for partners to concentrate on putting its capabilities to good use.

IBM isn’t just looking for customers; it’s looking for partners.

IBM already has a proven track record of delivering quantum computation via the cloud, thanks to the IBM Experience. “It’s not like you do five qubits in a lab, you kick the thing a couple of times and it works, you get your results, then you kick it again two months later to get it to work again,” said Crowder. “No, we demonstrated that we can have a real quantum computer running continuously since May [2016].”

On the other end of the bargain, IBM hopes that these partnerships will be able to inform the future of the IBM Q initiative. There are still big questions about how and why companies will choose to implement quantum hardware, collaborative work with early adopters might offer up some answers.

More: D-Wave sold its first 2,000-qubit quantum annealer to a cybersecurity firm

This should make it clear that IBM Q is a long-term project. Partners getting in on the ground floor are signing up to explore uncharted territory alongside the company — which could help them snag first place in line when the business benefits of a quantum system become clear. IBM is thinking three moves ahead. However, the company isn’t ready to drop its classical computing endeavors just yet.

A real quantum leap

“Absolutely,” Crowder replied when we asked him whether IBM expected to see quantum and classical computers co-exist going forward. “Absolutely, for much longer than my lifetime.”

“What classical computers do well is store and process lots of data, and they do that much more efficiently than quantum computing does today, and for as far as I can see in the future,” he explained. “Theoretically, universal quantum computers can do any function that a classical computer does, but in my opinion, they’re not as good at processing lots of data. What quantum computers are good at is exploring large problem spaces.”

IBM isn’t looking at quantum computers as the next generation of classical computers. It’s an entirely new category of hardware that has its own strengths, its own weaknesses, and the potential for some very powerful applications.

Of course, it’s still immature technology. Researchers all over the world have made massive advances toward a working large-scale universal quantum computer in recent years, but less headway has been made in terms of hashing out potential applications. It’s something of a vicious cycle.

“With a roughly 20-25 qubit system, you can still simulate that quantum system on your laptop,” said Crowder. “When you start getting to 40s, and around 50, you can’t even really explore that entire possibility space on the world’s largest supercomputer. It’s an interesting discontinuity.

“You actually need to have access to a quantum system to really understand how you build algorithms and use cases for a quantum system,” he added. “You can’t simulate it on a classical system anymore.”

Setting the benchmark

At present, we’re so early in the process of building universal quantum computers that there isn’t even a standardized method of comparing one system to another. IBM hopes to solve this problem via a metric dubbed quantum volume, which considers the number of qubits, the quality of quantum operations, qubit connectivity, coherence time, parallelism, and more.

More: Quantum computing will make your PC look like a graphing calculator

“It’s all of those things together that tell you how powerful your quantum computer is, in terms of what’s the size of the space it can explore,” said Crowder. “We’re very open to other people weighing in and perfecting that benchmark, but we’re going to need some kind of benchmark like that over time, so that people can easily get their head around the value of this quantum computer versus another quantum computer; this generation versus the next generation.”

There isn’t even a standardized method of comparing one [quantum] system to another.

The fact that there’s no such benchmark in place demonstrates just how much work there is to be done to transform quantum computation from promising theoretical work to a workable commercial product.

“Like I said, we’re in the ‘40s,” said Crowder. “We don’t have an industry benchmark yet to classify how powerful a quantum system is, but that’s the kind of thing that I think you’ll see rapidly developing over the next couple of years, as IBM and others keep pushing the threshold on these systems.”

IBM is laying down infrastructure that could prove to be very valuable in years to come. Between its quantum value metric, its relationships with IBM Q partners, and the IBM Experience, the company is already deep into the process of making quantum computing a key component of its business interests.

“We do believe that we’ve gotten to the point where we see a path to larger systems in the near future,” said Crowder. “I know the announcement doesn’t have specific timelines in it, but we do see that path to larger systems. That gets it to the point where it gets interesting.”

IBM has already invested a large amount of time and resources into quantum computing; IBM Q represents the next step. The company has ambitions of spearheading quantum computing as a commercial product. If it can find the right partners at this crucial stage, IBM Q could play a pivotal role in taking the technology out of research labs and carving out its real-world applications.

Exiled businessman behind $61 million deal to buy luxury smartphone maker Vertu

Why it matters to you

Vertu gets its third owner since Nokia sold it in 2012, and it’s to a company funded by someone Nokia once faced in court

Vertu, the British smartphone manufacturer known for its luxury devices, has been acquired by Baferton Ltd for around $60 million, or approximately 50 million British pounds. The sale comes just 18 months after Vertu was purchased by Hong Kong-based Godin Holdings, but this time the deal is considerably more controversial.

Baferton, although a business registered in Cyprus, is funded by Turkish businessman Hakan Uzan according to The Daily Telegraph. The Uzan family was once one of Turkey’s richest, owning newspapers, television stations, banks, and mobile networks; but after accusations of fraud and corruption, and debts reaching $6 billion, assets were seized by the Turkish government more than a decade ago, and the empire fell.

More: 2017 Vertu Constellation: Our First Take

The mobile network the Uzan Group owned was Telsim, which was built with financial and technical assistance from Nokia — which originally spawned Vertu — and Motorola. Telsim defaulted on payments due on loans a U.S. court deemed to be fraudulently obtained, forcing Nokia to write-off $818 million due to exposure at the time.  The Turkish government promised to pay Nokia and Motorola when Telsim was sold off to cover the Uzan Group’s debts. Reports from 2005 indicate Motorola was owned $2 billion by Telsim, and it filed fraud charges against the Uzan family. Payments were eventually made when Telsim was purchased by Vodafone.

Hakan Uzan himself missed court appearances in the U.K. related to the situation, and now lives in exile, with his exact whereabouts unknown. He provided a statement to the Telegraph through a spokesman, calling Vertu a, “powerful brand with an acknowledged market niche,” and added he intends to, “provide investment to enable Vertu to realize its full potential.”

Baferton is Vertu’s third owner after Nokia, with the EQT private equity firm paying upwards of $250 million in 2012, before the sale to Godin Holdings in 2015. We’ve reached out to Vertu for comment on how the sale will affect the company’s release plans in the near future. During Godin Holding’s ownership it only announced one new device, the 2017 Constellation. Prior to this, the New Signature Touch was launched in September 2015.