DirecTV plans to air 25 MLB games in 4K

If you’re looking for more 4K sports to justify your shiny new TV, you may be in luck. DirecTV is gearing up for its second season of broadcasting MLB games in 4K, and this year you’ll have a fairly wide range of games to watch in exceptional. You can watch as many 25 baseball games during the regular 2017 season, starting with the Cubs versus the Cardinals on April 4th — there will be five in April alone. As you might expect, though, you’ll have to jump through a few hoops to see last blade of astroturf on the field.

You’ll need a Genie HD DVR, a TV that’s natively DirecTV-4K ready (or else connected to a 4K Genie Mini) and at least the Choice programming package. In other words, you’ll have to be a eager, cutting-edge viewer to see the benefits. This is still more of an experiment, then. While there will definitely be a day when you can see every baseball game in 4K (just as you can expect HD today), it’s evident that the ultra-sharp future isn’t quite here yet.

Source: AT&T

Germany wants to regulate a 24-hour livestream as a broadcaster

You might want to think twice about running a non-stop livestream just because you can — at least in Germany, regulators will want to have a word with you. They’ve told the 24-hour let’s play channel PietSmietTV that it has to apply for a broadcasting license by April 30th if it wants to keep running. While it’s operating through Twitch and YouTube instead of TV or radio, it technically meets all the legal definitions of a broadcaster: it’s a “linear information and communication service” aimed at the public, with an editorial focus and not meant for personal purposes. Channel founder Peter Smits is respecting the decision, so there isn’t going to be a fight.

And importantly, this isn’t a one-off case. Officials see this as setting an example that could apply to other livestreams that fit the terms. While they’d like to see legislation that specifically regulates internet streams, they’ve decided to apply existing law in the meantime.

The problem, of course, is that this isn’t a modest request for most people. On top of the usual paperwork, streamers are looking at a cost of between €1,000 to €10,000 ($1,080 to $10,800). That’s relatively trivial for a TV station, but it’s a lot more intimidating for someone streaming video from home. And there’s also the question of what else falls under this regulation. Would shorter streams and on-demand video also qualify? There’s a chance that German internet users will have to think very carefully before they go live.

[Thanks, Kristy]

Via: Heise (translated)

Source: WBS (translated)

‘Black box’ technique may lead to more powerful AI

It’s not easy to train a neural network. Even if they’re not difficult to implement, it can take hours to get them ready no matter how much computing power you can use. OpenAI researchers may have a better solution: forgetting many of the usual rules. They’ve developed an evolution strategy (no, it doesn’t relate much to biological evolution) that promises more powerful AI systems. Rather than use standard reinforcement training, they create a “black box” where they forget that the environment and neural networks are even involved. It’s all about optimizing a given function in isolation and sharing it as necessary.

The system starts with many random parameters, makes guesses, and then tweaks follow-up guesses to favor the more successful candidates, gradually whittling things down to the ideal answer. You may start with a million numbers, but you’ll end up with just one in the end.

It sounds a bit mysterious, but the benefits are easy to understand. The technique eliminates a lot of the traditional cruft in training neural networks, making the code both easier to implement and roughly two to three times faster. And when ‘workers’ in this scheme only need to share tiny bits of data with each other, the method scales elegantly the more processor cores you throw at a problem. In tests, a large supercomputer with 1,440 cores could train a humanoid to walk in 10 minutes versus 10 hours for a typical setup, and even a “lowly” 720-core system could do in 1 hour what a 32-core system would take a full day to accomplish.

There’s a long way to go before you see the black box approach used in real-world AI. However, the practical implications are clear: neural network operators could spend more time actually using their systems instead of training them. And as computers get ever faster, this increases the likelihood that this kind of learning can effectively happen in real time. You could eventually see robots that are very quick to adapt to new tasks and learn from mistakes.

Source: OpenAI

FedEx is paying people to use Adobe Flash for Office Print service

Why it matters to you

Reluctant to adopt the technological advancements HTML 5, FedEx is still clinging to Adobe Flash.

In a world where HTML5 has asserted dominance over virtually every other markup language across the web, most companies wouldn’t be caught using anything else. From social media websites like Facebook to video streaming services like YouTube, almost everyone has abandoned Adobe Flash in favor of the HTML 5 standard.

Everyone except FedEx that is, as the courier delivery company is now offering customers of its Office Print customization service a $5 voucher to be applied to orders exceeding $30 if they install and enable Adobe Flash Player in their browsers. This news was spotted by Shawn Knight over at TechSpot who found that as an incentive for being patient enough to endure the arduous Adobe Flash install process.

As soon as you enter the FedEx Office web page without Flash installed, you’ll be greeted by a page that not only tells you how to get Flash in every major browser, but does so in addition to providing you with the discount code “FLA726.” Enter the code at checkout and, as the appreciative message at the top of the screen indicates, you’ll get a $5 voucher towards your next purchase upwards of $30.

More: Adobe is working on software to cut out the background from any photo

Instead of devising an HTML 5-compatible website, FedEx has decided that a courtesy discount for the inconvenience of downloading Flash is the more financially savvy route. So if you’re in a position where you need to design and print signs, banners, posters, and more from the comfort of your PC’s web browser, it may not be possible to do so without first downloading Flash, but at least there’s the prospect of a discount to consider.

All in all, this could be considered a lazy workaround for a company more than sizable enough to rework its website to support HTML 5, but then again why should FedEx waste the resources when Flash is still up and running, albeit with a few extra steps involved? Even if Microsoft appears to want nothing to do with it, Flash still lives on (for now).

Cell phones in Amazon trees alert rangers to illegal logging and record wildlife

Why it matters to you

With the use of solar-powered cell phones stashed in jungle canopies, an innovative physicist is the best shot at stopping illegal logging (and other dangers) which threaten Amazonian rainforests.

A newly funded application which makes use of solar-powered cell phones placed high in jungle canopies now helps park rangers — and regular citizens — join the fight in saving Amazonian rainforests. Dubbed the Rainforest Connection, the app uses phones hidden in trees throughout the jungle to detect sounds associated with illegal logging. When the phones pick up trigger sounds, they alert local park rangers who have the app installed on their own smartphones, giving them the ability to react accordingly.

The app is the brainchild of Topher White, a renowned physicist and engineer who became involved in rainforest conservation in 2012 after volunteering in Borneo with a Gibbon protection program. While there, he discovered that local conservationists spent nearly half their budget trying to fight off illegal loggers. The problem was that most of their vigilance relied on satellites to detect illegal activities, and by the time park rangers arrived, it was entirely too late.

More: Eco-friendly wear: Minim’s versatile pants may be the only ones you need

“If you pick it up on a satellite, not only is the damage already done but at that point, the stakes are so much higher,” White told Digital Trends. “The tree’s been cut and they’ve carried out trucks full of logs.”

This means the logging operation invested time and money into its work and feels inclined to fight to keep what they have. On the ranger’s side, a crime’s now been committed, and there’s a greater drive to prosecute or seek other means of affecting consequences. What this leads to are standoffs and other undesirable scenarios.

According to White, somewhere between 50 and 90 percent of all logging performed worldwide is illegal

“If you can actually stop them on their way in by detecting a vehicle or detecting a chainsaw before a lot of damage has been done, the stakes are so much lower for both sides that you can actually talk it down,” White said. “In central Africa and throughout Latin America, both sides are pretty well-armed. The quickness of the alerts and the quickness of the reaction is super important for that same reason which is that you don’t want the stakes to be high. You want it to be much simpler to just turn the truck around and leave than to actually have a showdown.”

According to White, somewhere between 50 and 90 percent of all logging performed worldwide is illegal. That said, recent research found that if rangers show up and stop poachers once or twice, they tend to leave — until the next logging season, at least. In that way, the app remains highly effective at reducing clandestine operations. The units which go up in the trees, called guardian phones, are recycled cells which are typically five to six years old — however, they’re still “powerful machines,” according to White.

Powered by the sun and operating 24 hours a day, the units record all sounds in the forest. Once recorded, the phones process each sound, crunch the data, send it to the cloud, and then analyze it in real-time. White outfit the analytics to detect chainsaws, logging trucks, vehicles, gunshots, certain species of animal, and other relevant noises. The RFCx app received a huge boost earlier this year when outdoor sports giant Mountain Hardware took it under its wing as part of the sports company’s Impact Initiative, which supports various eco-campaigns.

Along with deterring illegal logging, the app also offers a platform for ecologists to study wildlife. Soon, they will be able to access up to 18 months of data across hundreds of locations.

“If you’re a scientist who wants to study a certain bird in the Amazon, in the past you used to have to get a grant and organize it and go down there for a few months and record (everything),” White added. “There’s so much we can discover about the forest without needing people to actually go there.”

“There’s so much we can discover about the forest without needing people to actually go there.”

Furthermore, anyone has the ability to use the app to listen to the sounds of the rainforest in real-time and get alerts about what’s happening. Users simply open the app on a smart device to hear live birds, insects, monkeys, and other natural sounds from wherever they are in the world. This, in itself, adds momentum to conservation efforts, White pointed out, by getting average citizens interested in what’s going on. Being able to listen to those sounds and viscerally connecting with the forest increases people’s sense of personal investment. Lots of citizens would like to get involved, he said, but don’t know how. The app lowers the bar for what it takes to get involved.

“The bar is downloading an app onto your phone,” he acknowledged. “That’s all you have to do. You don’t necessarily have to pay anything, and we’ll send you alerts when something happens and you can learn about the forest that way. That’s all it takes for you to actually make a difference.”

According to White, in the context of a rainforest, audio is actually preferable to video feeds.

“It’s experiential and imaginative in a certain way,” he said. “Video is kind of what we’re used to, but the truth is that video in a rainforest isn’t nearly as interesting as audio. You’re just going to see a bunch of leaves in front of you unless the camera picks up some leopard, which is pretty rare. But [with audio] you can hear all sorts of animals that are out there. You don’t even know what most of them are — we don’t know what most of them are. It sounds like a Star Wars laser battle.”

Google Talk is dead, Hangouts is the new Slack, Project Fi users are screwed and everyone hates Allo

It is impossible to go seven or more days without some messaging news from Google.

Google seems to understand that it needs to pare its messenger story down to a few apps that cover everyone’s needs (so it’s easier for people to ignore them all and use WhatsApp anyway). And, to some extent, that’s what is happening, but everything feels so chaotic and is changing before replacements are ready.

It just feels like Google has gone off the deep end.

Some people use the word confusing to describe Google’s strategy here, but no matter what words are used it all still feels rushed — something you would expect from amateurs instead of one of the biggest tech companies in the world. It just feels like Google has gone off the deep end.

I’m going to take responsibility for what every blogger or journalist has done wrong here because some of the confusion is our fault. It’s easy (and fun) to write about seemingly random changes and follow with a jab at Google for doing them. But if you break things down you can guess at Google’s strategy.

• Hangouts is now a proper enterprise tool. Or at least it will be. Hangouts Meet and Hangouts Chat sound like, together, a potential Slack replacement for every company that uses Google Docs. Seeing what it will (hopefully) be capable of, I imagine Mobile Nations is going to give it a spin because we are a Google Docs shop.
• Google Talk is dead. It needed to die so the places it lives can be used for Hangouts Chat. Nobody uses the Google Talk app on their phone or tablet, and while having it tied to Gmail is great, having Hangouts Chat there is better for the people who live in Gmail all day. They are the people who will use Hangouts Chat to talk to their demanding boss from Toronto (Ed note: Damnit, Jerry). Or something.
• Allo is Google’s app for people who don’t want to use SMS. And that is a lot of people. I had hoped Google would use Allo and Duo to provide an iMessage-like experience, but instead, it’s the Mountain View version of WhatsApp. It’s also a really good app, but nobody wants to use it because WhatsApp has a gazillion more users. Had Google worked things out and brought Allo to us before WhatsApp exploded, things may be different.

• Duo is Google’s video calling app. It’s a really nice app with a fatal flaw: you can’t set up a group call. A lot of work went into making things easy and delivering the best video feed possible for every level of bandwidth, but Hangouts used to let 15 people get together and look at each other. We are not likely to forget that and will complain instead of using Duo, or at least complain while using it. I know I will. Especially when I use Hangouts Meet for work stuff and can’t use it for anything else unless I get a Google Apps account or am invited to a Hangout by someone with a Gapps account. WTF, Google?
• Android Messages is one thing Google is doing right. Too bad it depends on your carrier to also do it right, and that will take forever and an act of God because your carrier wants your friends to switch to it rather than make its features available to users on another provider. I wish Google was working on some way for people using Android Messages to have a great IM experience with each other without using SMS to do it. But, technically, they have Allo for that.
• Google Voice has been improved so it’s a nicer experience for when you want to send texts from your tablet or use the same number on more than one phone. Unless you use Project Fi. Then you’re screwed. Also, why is there no screw emoji? They have “ear of Maize” so it will have to do. 🌽
• Supersonic exists to give us one more thing to wonder about and for Russell Holly to talk to himself and the Supersonic help chat bot.

Now for the big question: How the hell do you make all these changes without pissing everyone off and confusing the hell out of a person who just bought their first Android phone and wants a replacement for iMessage?

This stuff is hard, and the way Google is doing it makes it seem even harder.

You don’t. That means you probably should be changing everything all at once.

I won’t pretend that I would be a good businessman. I have a hard time deciding what side to get with my steak or what socks to wear. I imagine some really smart people in expensive suits sitting at a giant mahogany table using slides and big words to make these decisions, but then I see them in action and realize it could just as easily be a bunch of folks who tumbled out of a clown car. I have no idea what Google is thinking, and it’s kind of hard to assume they have a comprehensive plan.

Google I/O is coming. It would be a great time for someone to explain something. If they do, we’ll tell you all about it. And if they don’t we’ll keep scratching our heads and guessing at what they have planned.

An Android O deep dive [#acpodcast]

This week, Daniel, Jerry and Russell are joined by Eric Richardson, an Android developer at WillowTree, to talk about Android O.

Android O is still very early — we don’t even know its final name yet — but we do know that there are going to be a lot of important under-the-hood improvements that will make experiences better on phones, tablet and even Chromebooks!

Join us for a deep dive into everything we currently know about Android O!

Podcast MP3 URL: http://traffic.libsyn.com/androidcentral/androidcentral329.mp3

Nokia’s new Android phones will make their way Stateside

Nokia’s 3310 stole the show at Mobile World Congress earlier this year, but it wasn’t the only device the brand announced at the event. It also debuted a trio of Android phones called the Nokia 6, 5 and 3. Now the company has revealed on Twitter that those three will all be available in the US. We’ve known for a while that there’s a global release on the docket, but this confirms that you’ll be able to get your hands on them when the time comes. Nokia also told another Twitter follower that the phone’s projected release date is still sometime between April and June.

The phones were designed by HMD Global, the company’s exclusive licensee for mobile devices. They run the stock version of Android Nougat with no third-party skins or apps to clutter the home screen. Among the three, Nokia 6 is the largest with its 5.5-inch display. It’s also the priciest: one will set you back roughly $247, while the Nokia 5 and 3 will cost you around $200 and $147, respectively. We got the chance to take them for a spin in February — make sure to read our experience with the devices if you’re interested in buying one.

@QQwill We’re planning on a global release so yes they will be. Get the latest updates by registering at https://t.co/waNGfPppQ8

— Nokia Mobile (@nokiamobile) March 22, 2017

Via: The Verge

Source: Nokia Mobile

California’s new car emission standards defy the White House

The Trump administration may be rethinking car efficiency regulations, but that isn’t stopping California from putting its foot down. The state’s Air Resources Board has finalized car emissions standards for 2022-2025 that the White House still wants to review, creating the potential for a conflict if federal officials rethink the rules. The Board’s Mary Nichols even went so far as to blast car makers for turning to the feds, claiming that they were throwing themselves “on the mercy” of the new US government rather than working with California.

Unless the feds can somehow challenge California’s authority, the state may hold both the White House and car companies over a barrel. The Clean Air Act gives California a waiver to set its own emissions standards, and 12 other states (including New York and Pennsylvania) follow those standards. If a conventional car maker wants a reasonable chance of success in the US, it has to honor California’s guidance — effectively, one state is frequently determining the rules for everyone else.

The approval is likely to please those concerned that automotive standards would slide backward under a federal leadership determined to protect the fossil fuel industry. However, it’s definitely not going to make car companies happy, and might create issues if you’re a driver. The Obama administration’s speed in locking in standards pre-Trump caught automakers off-guard — they think officials gave them too little time to think about the impact. And the new standards are estimated to raise the price of a car by about $1,000 in 2025, which isn’t trivial for most buyers.

Via: Reuters

Source: CARB (1), (2)

China says Apple isn’t cloning a local phone maker

Did it seem ridiculous to you that Beijing officials ordered a ban on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus over a dubious design patent claim? You’re not the only one. A court has reversed the ban (which was suspended during a dispute process) and declared that Apple isn’t violating the patents of Shenzhen Baili Marketing Services, which insisted that the iPhone 6 riffed on the look of its 100c smartphone. Regulators issued the ban without real proof of wrongdoing, according to the ruling, and the iPhone has traits that “completely change the effect” of its design versus its (frankly very generic-looking) rival. Customers haven’t had a problem telling the difference between the iPhone and 100c, the court says.

This is water under the bridge for Apple given that it stopped selling the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus a while back — it wasn’t going to lose much money even if the court upheld the ban. However, the win could serve as a shot across the bow of other Chinese companies that might try a similar move in the future. If they want future claims to stick, they’ll have to show that there’s more than a passing similarity between devices. Otherwise, they may not get much more than a brief burst of publicity.

Source: SCMP, Reuters