Lyft lets you hail rides directly through other apps

Before long, you’ll be able to hail a Lyft ride from a lot more places than just the company’s app. That’s the vision behind a new program for developers the company launched today called the Dispatch Developer Program. Lyft says that this set of APIs will let developers build Lyft integration into their apps and services, letting users hail rides without even needing a Lyft account or a smartphone.

Developers will be able to use their own sign-up, billing and notification systems — essentially rolling the ability to request a Lyft ride into their own apps and services without the customer previously having used the service before.

This sounds like it’ll enable integrations to what Uber recently launched with Google Maps. From the Maps app on iOS and Android you can hail an Uber, pick your destination, and pay all without ever opening the Uber app. But Lyft’s system goes even deeper — the Google Maps integration still requires that you have an Uber account and payment system set up.

Lyft gave a few examples of how it imagines the Dispatch Developer Program being used. The company is already working to partner with car dealerships to provide customers with courtesy rides while their cars are being serviced. Other partners providing more critical aid include One Call Care Management and LogistiCare, two companies that offer health care transportation to passengers who can’t drive or otherwise get transportation they need.

Judging from these examples, it sounds like Lyft is targeting businesses to use its services rather than make this something totally consumer facing (like the aforementioned Google Maps integration). Either way, it’s a chance for the company to potentially make more money and find more customers in places it wouldn’t otherwise — something that’ll be crucial in its uphill battle with Uber.

Toyota put on a race to find the most efficient drivers

There’s an air of excitement in the car as we whip around a corner at Sonoma Raceway, 45 minutes north of San Francisco. The passenger up front is barking stats at the driver while staring at an iPad: “We’re at 24 percent, 27 percent, 32 percent, 37 percent! Okay, we’re at 40 percent. Hold it there.” The driver responds in the affirmative and the car continues down the track at a blistering 25 milers per hour. The Prius we’re sitting in isn’t going to break any speed records. Instead it’s being pushed to the limits of its efficiency.

The Sonoma Raceway traditionally hosts Indy and Nascar events where cars sprint around the track at breathtaking speeds, burning thousands gallons of gas pulled from the remains of long-dead dinosaurs. The Toyota Prius Challenge is, in nearly every possible way, the exact opposite of that experience.

Instead of speed, competitors are graded on efficiency. Toyota picked 20 teams to drive around the track in identical Prius’ and tasked them with pulling as many miles per gallon as possible during a 40-minute, nine lap “race.” But the streamlining squads needed more than just a light foot.

Ahead of the competition, Toyota shared data with the teams to help them come up with gas-saving strategies. That information included details of the track’s turns and elevation changes. But, more importantly, the participants were provided details about multiple trips Toyota’s own team had made around the track so that the competitors could use to see how a Prius reacted to different driving styles. They might not have had a chance to actually drive on the track ahead of time, but for the most part they knew what it was like. I was lucky enough to sort of get in on the action.

A week before the event, I was added to team Mile10. I would get the opportunity to be inside the car on race day and could help come up with a winning plan. With a few days to go before the race I joined mechanical engineer Michael Zhang and Gleb Esman, a senior product manager from data analytics company Splunk. We went over the fine details of data we were sent by Toyota.

It was at this point that I realized I wasn’t going to be of much help. Esman had mapped out the track along with information about the car’s performance at various points during a run. He showed us a slick 3D model that was sure yield maximum efficiency. Since we would have to complete our nine laps within 40 to 42 minutes and change drivers twice, timing seemed like the most difficult task. Then race day arrived and it wasn’t as simple as that.

The teams were allowed practice runs to get a feel for the track. Engineers, analysts and developers used real-time data from their cars to see how well their pre-game strategy would play out. Turns out, not so great. For one thing, the teams didn’t take into account track traffic. You can’t just pass a car anywhere on the track if it’s in your way. Plus, actually driving is different from looking at data about driving.

“Initially we were planning on taking it as slow as possible,” said Javier Gonzales from team Phantom. “But that changed when we got here, because we realized we’re going to be racing with a lot of other cars. There’s a lot of dynamic changes that you have to account for and that really changed the way we planned our strategy.”

Data is is wonderful, but real-world implementation of it can be tricky especially when dealing with cars. Variations in temperature, asphalt, tires, wind and the last time the oil was changed, among other things, make car analysis tough. Toyota put on the event not only as a way for developers, researchers and engineers to get together but also, to find potential employees and partners that can tackle these problems.

“We offer this this raw data footage of Prius vehicles we acquired during our test days and have it available for machine learning and data scientists,” said Masanori Yamato, corporate manager of Toyota Ventures. “That way we can find potential collaboration opportunities and potential hires as well.” So teams aren’t just competing for a trophy, then; they might end up working with or for Toyota in the future.

Meanwhile, back in the car, I had a blast even though I didn’t actually get to drive. While this an incredibly boring spectator sport (“oh, look a car doing 15 miles a hour down the straightaway!”), the in-vehicle action is exciting, in an intensely nerdy sort of way. I was tasked with making sure we didn’t creep up on traffic that would interfere with our strategy.

I think we did well, but nonetheless, our efforts weren’t enough to prevail. The winner was team EcoFlow with an average MPG of 85 miles per gallon. The team said that being flexible with their strategy helped them take the top spot. Like the other teams, their initial plans changed after the test laps. But they were able to bring it back via constant communication and combining data and the dynamics of driving on a track with other competitors. In the future, they won’t all be human.

Next year Toyota is adding an autonomous car to the competition. The teams will take on a robot that gets fed the same data. Yet even though the 2018 event will set the cars out on their own without traffic, there’s a good chance that humanity will emerge victorious because while data is important, once a car is on the road, it takes more than just computational power to end up in the winner’s circle.

Source: Toyota

New Wikileaks Series Details CIA’s ‘Specialized Unit’ Dedicated to Creating iOS Exploits

In a new series of leaks focusing on the United States Central Intelligence Agency, code named “Vault 7,” Wikileaks has revealed 8,761 documents discovered within an isolated network in Langley, Virginia that “amounts to more than several hundred million lines of code.” The code contains what Wikileaks referred to as a “hacking arsenal” of malware, viruses, trojans, and weaponized “zero day” exploits for iOS devices, that could give anyone in possession of the code “the entire hacking capacity of the CIA.”

This “Year Zero” release is the first in the full Vault 7 series by Wikileaks, and is said to act as an introduction to the capacity and means of the CIA’s covert hacking program. The agency’s abilities can take aim at a number of popular consumer products from companies like Apple, Google, Samsung, and Microsoft, turning everything from an iPhone to a smart TV into a “covert microphone.”

In its analysis of the released documents, Wikileaks looked at how iPhones and iPads have been targeted by the CIA in the past, and how they can continue to be exploited in the future. Although Android remains a dominant force in the global smartphone market, Wikileaks argued that a “disproportionate focus” has been placed on iOS devices by the CIA, most likely due to the Apple-branded phone’s popularity.

Because of this, the agency has a specialized unit in place within the Mobile Development Branch that creates and executes malware to infiltrate, take control of, and exfiltrate sensitive information from iOS products. The MDB’s methods are said to include a collection of zero day exploits, which are vulnerabilities in a piece of software unknown by the software’s creator and subsequently exploitable by hackers.

Including the iOS malware, Wikileaks claimed that the CIA has recently “lost control” of the majority of its hacking arsenal.

Despite iPhone’s minority share (14.5%) of the global smart phone market in 2016, a specialized unit in the CIA’s Mobile Development Branch produces malware to infest, control and exfiltrate data from iPhones and other Apple products running iOS, such as iPads. CIA’s arsenal includes numerous local and remote “zero days” developed by CIA or obtained from GCHQ, NSA, FBI or purchased from cyber arms contractors such as Baitshop. The disproportionate focus on iOS may be explained by the popularity of the iPhone among social, political, diplomatic and business elites.

Wikileaks noted that in the wake of Edward Snowden’s NSA leaks, a group of technology companies convinced the Obama administration to disclose any zero day exploits and bugs to each company, rather than hoard the information. The Vulnerabilities Equities Process underlined this agreement in 2010, and the U.S. government said it would reveal any vulnerabilities discovered to the company in question.

Documents in Year Zero paint a further negative image for the CIA, which is said to not have abided by the agreement between the technology companies and the U.S. government. An example was given by Wikileaks centering on one malware that can control both the Android phone and iPhone software “that runs or has run presidential Twitter accounts.” The government is said to not have brought the information forward to Apple or Google in the time it has had the hacking data.

As long as the CIA keeps these vulnerabilities concealed from Apple and Google (who make the phones) they will not be fixed, and the phones will remain hackable.

The same vulnerabilities exist for the population at large, including the U.S. Cabinet, Congress, top CEOs, system administrators, security officers and engineers. By hiding these security flaws from manufacturers like Apple and Google the CIA ensures that it can hack everyone at the expense of leaving everyone hackable.

The scope of the new Wikileaks documents includes detailed information on the iOS exploits, hacks that could potentially infest vehicle control systems, and even attacks against Samsung smart TV sets. This last point, dubbed “Weeping Angel,” was said to have been developed by the CIA in conjunction with the United Kingdom’s MI5 as a way to convert turned-off television sets into secret microphones.

The full list of the Year Zero documents can be found on Wikileaks, and complete analysis of the documents by independent security experts will take some time in order for the impact of the release to be determined.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tag: Wikileaks
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LG’s UltraFine 5K Display Back in Stock on Apple’s Website After Shielding Fix

LG’s UltraFine 5K Display now ships in 1-2 business days on Apple’s website in the United States and Canada, signaling that the display is finally back in stock after having been backordered for up to 4-6 weeks due to an interference issue.

Specifically, some users experienced flickering issues with the UltraFine 5K Display when it came within close proximity of a Wi-Fi router, or in some cases, simply made contact with a MacBook Pro. LG apologized for the issue last month and said all models manufactured after February 2017 would be fitted with enhanced shielding.

Apple stopped sales of the LG UltraFine 5K Display at its retail stores and delayed shipments on its website about a month ago while LG worked on the fix, and it appears the issue is now resolved.

Those who purchased an UltraFine 5K Display prior to February can contact LG to have their model retrofitted with the same improved shielding.

LG’s UltraFine 5K Display is still on sale for $974 until March 31, when the price will return to $1,299.95. Longer shipping times are still quoted in some other regions, such as Singapore and the United Kingdom.

Related Roundup: Displays
Tags: LG, Apple retail
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Apple Seeds Fifth Beta of macOS Sierra 10.12.4 to Developers

Apple today seeded the fifth beta of an upcoming macOS Sierra 10.12.4 update to developers, one week after seeding the fourth macOS Sierra 10.12.4 beta and over a month after releasing macOS Sierra 10.12.3.

The fifth macOS Sierra 10.12.4 beta is available for download through the Apple Developer Center or the software update mechanism in the Mac App Store for those who have previously installed a beta.

macOS Sierra 10.12.4 brings iOS’s Night Shift mode to the Mac for the first time. First introduced on iOS devices with iOS 9.3, Night Shift is designed to gradually shift the display of a device from blue to yellow, cutting down on exposure to blue light. Blue light is said to disrupt the circadian rhythm and is believed to interrupt sleeping patterns.

Night Shift can be activated through the Displays section of System Preferences, where a setting to have it come on at sunset and turn off at sunrise is available. Night Shift can also be toggled on manually through the Notification Center or via Siri.

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The 10.12.4 update focuses mainly on Night Shift, but also includes dictation support for Shanghainese, cricket scores for Siri, improved PDFKit APIs, and iCloud Analytics options.

Related Roundup: macOS Sierra
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Foxconn and TSMC Team Up to Bid on Toshiba’s NAND Flash Unit

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Foxconn, two companies who work with Apple, are teaming up to place a bid for a stake in Toshiba’s memory chip unit according to Chinese site Liberty Times (via DigiTimes).

The partnership could perhaps give TSMC and Foxconn the tools to gain a serious foothold in the flash memory market that’s currently dominated by Samsung.

Via the cooperation, the report claimed, TSMC will be able to challenge Korea-based Samsung Electronics’ leadership in the flash memory market, allowing the pure-play foundry house to achieve a new wave of growth. The two companies’ bidding team is currently in Japan aggressively preparing for document submission prior to the March 29 first-round bidding.

Bidding is set to start on March 29, and Foxconn and TSMC are said to have representatives in Japan that are preparing to place a bid. According to Foxconn chairman Terry Guo, the company is interested in pushing into the flash memory industry as storage demands will increase as screen resolutions go up.

Guo says Foxconn is highly interested in Toshiba’s memory business and would be willing to use the same business strategy it adopted when partnering with Sharp — keeping the business intact. Foxconn purchased Sharp in 2016 and has since begun using the business to build OLED displays, perhaps for future iPhones.

Toshiba is planning to sell a portion of its flash memory unit to raise funds to cover a significant $6.3 billion loss, with the company planning to split off the memory unit from the main business on April 1, 2017. Toshiba originally hoped to sell a minority stake in the business, but later said it would consider selling most, or all, of the new flash unit.

Apple, SK Hynix, Western Digital, and Micron Technology have also been named as parties potentially interested in acquiring Toshiba’s memory business.

Tags: TSMC, Foxconn, Toshiba
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AMD says Naples CPU will outperform the heavily priced Xeon E5-2699A v4 chip

Why it matters to you

This is important for the mass market because data centers will benefit from the better performance per watt, which turns into savings for companies and users.

Data centers are the backbone of everything we do in a connected world, from browsing Facebook to journeying across epic online worlds to storing data personal online. AMD was once a big player in the data center industry but seemingly went silent for several years as it designed from scratch its latest processor core architecture codenamed Zen. Now AMD is back with its Naples server processors slated to arrive in the second quarter of 2017.

Each Naples system-on-chip processor consists of 32 cores and 64 threads. Given that servers based on this chip will have two sockets, that totals up to 64 cores and 128 threads. Even more, each processor will have an integrated memory controller overseeing eight memory channels to support 16 memory sticks. Each Naples chip will also have control more than 64 I/O lanes, eliminating the need for the “southbridge,” which typically controls I/O lanes.

More: AMD’s ‘Naples’ server CPU designed for ‘radical’ data center changes

In a Naples system, the two AM4 processor sockets are connected by AMD’s Infinity Fabric technology. Consider this as a scalable, modular, private network shared between the two sockets that provides full use of the system memory made available to the processor and graphics chip. It consists of a “control” portion for power management, security, and reset/initialization, and a “data” portion for low-bandwidth communication between the sockets, the bus (including graphics chips via PCIe), and so on.

To show Naples’ superiority over an Intel-based server, the company recently compared its two-socket setup against one sporting Intel Xeon E5-2699A v4 processors. Here are some of the key differences:

AMD Naples
Xeon E5-2699A v4
Number of processors:
2
2
Number of cores:
64
44
Number of threads:
128
88
Base speed per CPU:
unknown
2.40GHz
Boost speed per CPU:
unknown
3.60GHz
Total memory channels:
16
8
Total memory capacity (16GB DIMMs):
512GB
384GB
Memory frequency:
2,400MHz
1,866MHz (note: 2,400MHz is max)
Total PCIe Gen3 lanes to CPUs:
128 (64 max each CPU)
80 (40 max each CPU)
Price per CPU:
Unknown
$4,938

As shown, the Intel server chip was outnumbered in cores and threads even before the demo began, so AMD dialed back the two Naples chips to run only on a combined 44 cores, and reduced the memory speed to 1,866MHz. Thus, in a seismic analysis workload, the company saw the task completed on the Naples setup in 18 seconds and the same task finished on an Intel setup in 35 seconds. AMD then turned on the remaining Naples cores and bumped the memory back up to 2,400Mhz to see the same task completed in just 14 seconds.

Naples is optimized for AMD’s Radeon Instinct platform for deep learning workloads. Its Zen core design was also developed alongside AMD’s Vega graphics chip design, which will first appear in Radeon RX Vega solutions for PC gamers soon. Naples is also optimized for accelerated Virtual Desktop Infrastructure solutions.

Ultimately, with the release of Naples next quarter, AMD is updating the data center with 45 percent more cores, 122 percent more memory bandwidth, and 60 percent more I/O than the competition. Stay tuned for more hardware details and pricing as the launch date closes in.

You only pay once: FreedomPop’s first Wi-Fi-calling phone has zero monthly costs

Why it matters to you

FreedomPop’s V7 doesn’t cost much to buy, and potentially nothing to use, making it one of the best deals out there for frugal phone fans.

Low-cost mobile network FreedomPop is already known for its superb value SIM-only plans, but with the launch of its first smartphone, it has taken bargain basement mobile phone ownership to the next level. The FreedomPop V7 costs just 60 British pounds, or about $75, and comes with a SIM card loaded with free calls, free data, free SMS, and even free WhatsApp messages. If you’re not too demanding, you may end up paying only once for the V7, and never again.

FreedomPop’s V7 makes use of Wi-Fi-calling technology, switching between a cellular network and Wi-Fi to always ensure you can make a call on the strongest connection. Currently, the V7 has only been announced for the U.K. and Spain, but hasn’t confirmed the SIM or plan that will be included with the phone. However, as it comes with WhatsApp messages included, it’s likely to also include 100 minutes of calls, and 200MB of data for free.

More: FreedomPop will sell you a refurbished phone through its own online store

If this isn’t enough, you can pay to upgrade and add more of each, but that would defeat the point of FreedomPop’s outrageously good value phone and plan. We’re hoping it will include free European roaming, too, which is part of the standard WhatsApp SIM deal through the network. Interestingly, the V7 is a dual-SIM phone, giving the frugal phone fan even more choice to exploit the best deals out there, without compromising or having to switch SIMs.

What sort of phone do you get for $75? Well, it’s not going to be challenging the Google Pixel for Android supremacy. It has a 5-inch screen with an unknown resolution, a Snapdragon 210 processor, a 13-megapixel rear camera, a 5-megapixel selfie camera, and 8GB of internal memory. There’s a MicroSD card slot, but it’s only Android 6.0 Marshmallow installed, putting it behind many other phones released in 2017.

It’s hard to complain, though, as it costs considerably less than most other smartphones. It may end up being used as a second or even third phone for many. FreedomPop has teased a Wi-Fi-calling phone in the past, touting a partnership with Intel at the time, but either that model is still coming, or has been put on ice for now.

If you’re in the U.K. or Spain, the V7 is available on a first-come-first-served basis through FreedomPop’s website, and the company warns that supplies are limited, so grab one quickly if you want one. Anyone in the U.S. keen to get a similar deal should be patient, FreedomPop says the V7 will be released in the United States later this year.

Best app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time

Everyone likes apps, but sometimes the best ones are a bit expensive. Now and then, developers make paid apps free for a limited time, but you have to snatch them up while you have the chance. Here are the latest and greatest apps on sale in the iOS App Store.

These apps normally cost money, and this sale lasts for a limited time only. If you go to the App Store and it says the app costs money, that means the deal has expired and you will be charged. 

More: 200 Awesome iPhone Apps | The best Android apps for almost any occasion

Cleu

By connecting our behaviors to one experience, we can start to remove the need to check our devices. This app hopes to help us do that.

Available on:

iOS

Easy Spending

See where your money goes and take control of where to spend your money effectively using the simple and yet powerful money management app on iOS.

Available on:

iOS

CubicToDo

With CubicToDo, you will be able to manage your to-do list in a unique way — by fiddling with a three-dimensional cube.

Available on:

iOS

KeyWi Keyboard

KeyWi is a custom keyboard for your iOS device that allows you to type using your computer’s physical keyboard.

Available on:

iOS

Direction Compass

This is the “must have” tool to locate yourself easily whether it be in a town or city, while out hiking, on a boat, or more. The map is a compass that orients itself automatically.

Available on:

iOS

Six Pack Abs

These exercises are designed for a 30-day challenge with 4 workouts per day. The number of workouts, and time required for performing an exercise, will increase each day.

Available on:

iOS

Base Surface Pro 4s no longer come with Surface Pen — but it’s a better deal

Why it matters to you

Microsoft’s decision to drop bundled pen options means no one will be caught out by a raw deal. You can still buy the Pen separately for an overall savings.

Microsoft has removed the entry-level Surface Pro 4 with Surface Pen bundle entirely, but while this might seem like a limiting of options for Surface Pro 4 buyers, it actually could save them money. The cheapest Surface Pro 4 without the Surface Pen is $100 cheaper than when it came with one, and you can always buy the pen separately for just $60.

When we took a look at the Surface Pro 4 back in mid-2016, we called it the best 2-in-1 PC we’d ever tested. Although mostly that was to do with the hardware inside and its presentation, the Surface Pen did add a lot to the package, too. It’s much more sensitive than the Pen that shipped out with the Surface Pro 3 and feels like an intrinsic part of the Surface Pro 4’s design.

Even so, it’s not terrible that people can save themselves some money and still pick one up later if they are looking to buy the cheapest of Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4s. The “no pen,” version still comes with 128GB of storage, a Core M3 processor, and 4GB of memory.

More: New patent shows Microsoft working on Surface Pen wireless charging accessories

Ditching the bundled pen option for low-end Surface Pro 4s may be something Microsoft does across all territories before long. As it stands, many regions still have the bundle as an option on the Microsoft store, but considering Microsoft’s change in the U.S., a decision to do something similar elsewhere in the world wouldn’t be surprising.

All of this is likely part of the build-up for Microsoft’s next iteration of the 2-in-1 PC at some point in the next few months. The Pro 4 is still a solid purchase, but it is getting a little long in the tooth, especially for those who like their hardware upgrades to be annual, or anyone sitting on convertible hardware that’s much older.