Four decades of ‘Doctor Who’ arrive on the BBC’s BritBox

BritBox, the streaming service co-owned by British broadcasters BBC and ITV, has now become an essential purchase, at least for some people. The company is now the exclusive home to the entire library of classic Doctor Who episodes in the US. Subscribers will now be able to watch the surviving full serials from the 1963 – 1989 show, back when it was awesome.

The catalog mirrors that of the show’s DVD releases, including the recently-returned serials The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear. Deeper cuts, like serials with missing episodes and the recently-reconstructed The Power of the Daleks aren’t included.

But, as a paean to hardcore fans, BritBox has pledged to add the audio versions of those wiped episodes in the near future. In addition, the catalog will also include short trips and side steps, such as K9 and Company, An Adventure in Space and Time and the first, non-broadcast “pilot” version of An Unearthly Child.

The BBC has always been protective over putting the classic show on streaming sites, since Doctor Who is still a big money maker. Hulu previously had a couple of serials from the classic show, as did Netflix, but both libraries were pulled when the license expired in February 2016. Ever since, Amazon Video has held some of the rights, but speculation was rife that the BBC was looking to offer one of its crown jewels exclusively on its own streaming platform.

The fact that the revenue from DVD sales must be drying up means that the BBC now feels comfortable releasing it onto BritBox. Considering that each DVD would set you back around $10, and there are around 130 DVDs to buy, the $6.99 per month rental charge is a bit of a bargain.

Graphene sieves are a cheaper way of making saltwater drinkable

A graphene-based sieve developed by a team of researchers from the University of Manchester could give millions of people access to clean water. See, it’s highly efficient in filtering the salt out of saltwater and could lead to a less energy-intensive desalination process. The team’s sieve is made of graphene oxide, an oxidized form of the material that could be easier and cheaper to produce in large quantities than the typical graphene.

According to project lead Dr. Rahul Nair, they can make graphene oxide sieves simply by pouring the solution onto a substrate or porous material. To make typical graphene permeable for desalination, you’d need to drill holes absolutely no larger than one nanometer into the membrane. “It is a really challenging job,” Nair said.

The team still had to find a way for graphene oxide membranes to filter out salts, though. In previous studies, scientists found that the membranes swell when immersed in water, enlarging their pores and allowing salts to pass through. To solve that problem, Nair and his team coated both sides of the membranes with epoxy resin.

The epoxy-coated membranes’ pores are too small for salt-and-water molecules to pass through. However, they allow pure water molecules to flow through really quickly since their one-nanometer pores are very close to the size of water molecules. Nair explained:

“When the capillary size is around one nanometer, which is very close to the size of the water molecule, those molecules form a nice interconnected arrangement like a train. That makes the movement of water faster: if you push harder on one side, the molecules all move on the other side because of the hydrogen bonds between them. You can only get that situation if the channel size is very small.”

Someday, these graphene-based sieves could change lives around the world. But before that happens, the team has to make sure they can withstand prolonged contact with seawater. They also need to test the material against current membranes desalination processes use. “The ultimate goal,” Nair said, “is to create a filtration device that will produce potable water from seawater or wastewater with minimal energy input.”

Source: BBC, Nature

Invasive, self-destructing iOS hack is even worse on Android

Security researchers from Google and Lookout are warning Android users about “one of the most sophisticated and targeted mobile attacks we’ve seen in the wild.” Called Chrysaor, it’s the sibling of Pegasus, a zero-day iOS exploit that was used to spy on a United Arab Emirates human rights activist. Once installed, attackers are able to spy on calls, texts, and emails, microphone, camera, keylogging, GPS and other user data.

In other words, this is not a hacking tool that was coded by “script kiddy” amateurs. Lookout believes it was developed for government surveillance use by NSO Group, a “cyber war” organization located in Israel that charges over $1 million to infect a phone with malware. (For more on what it can do, see Lookout’s paper here.)

There’s a big difference between the Android and iOS versions, too. The iOS malware was designed to jailbreak the target device using three known zero-day vulnerabilities and then install malicious software. If the root failed, the attack failed, and back in August, Apple patched those three holes, effectively rendering Pegasus useless.

On Android devices, however, if Chrysaor can’t root a device, it uses a failsafe to request permissions that still allow it to steal your data. “This means Pegasus for Android is easier to deploy on devices and has the ability to move laterally if the first attempt to hijack the device fails,” Lookout Security VP Mike Murray wrote.

The camera, microphone and nearly every other Android phone sensor is vulnerable to Chrysaor

Furthermore, the device is designed to uninstall itself if there’s any chance it will be spotted, presumably to let the malware purveyors use it with other clients. “Pegasus for Adroid will remove itself from the phone if the SIM MCC ID is invald, an ‘antidote’ file exists, it has not been able to check in with the servers after 60 days, or it receives a command from the server to remove itself,” Lookout says.

Lookout contacted the Android team after it spotted signs of the Android threat thanks to the work it did on Pegasus for iOS. In total, Google says that “a few dozen Android devices” may have been affected — mostly in hotspots or war zones like Israel, Georgia, Mexico, Turkey, UAE and Ukraine.

While Chrysaor is not widespread, it represents the bleeding edge of smartphone malware, and Android users are more vulnerable than folks on iOS. Google says its latest security releases should help stop it, and adds that “no Chrysaor apps were on Google Play.” As such, it advises Android users to avoid installing apps from sites they don’t know.

Source: Android Developers Blog, Lookout Blog

Spotify agrees to let artists keep new albums off its free tier

One of the biggest points of contention between music streaming giant Spotify and the record labels that provide it with songs is the service’s free tier. Regardless of whether you pay for a subscription or not, Spotify users have access to the same music catalog. That is finally changing though: as reported in Music Business Worldwide, a new deal between Spotify and Universal Music Group will make some albums premium-only for a limited time. It’s a reversal of a long-held position that Spotify wouldn’t segment its catalog in this way, but it was likely necessary to continue offering all the music it has access to.

Specifically, artists on Universal will have the option to make albums available for premium subscribers only for two weeks. “Starting today, Universal artists can choose to release new albums on premium only for two weeks,” Spotify CEO Daniel Eck said in a statement, “offering subscribers an earlier chance to explore the complete creative work, while the singles are available across Spotify for all our listeners to enjoy.”

This comes a few weeks after several reports indicated this long-standing conflict was close to being resolved. A two-week premium exclusive window straddles the line between giving artists a chance to capitalize on intense interest in new albums while not keeping those on the free tier shut out for very long, relatively speaking. And with Universal signing this deal, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the other two giant labels Sony and Warner sign similar contract soon.

Of course, the question on everyone’s mind is whether this will be enough for noted Spotify enemy Taylor Swift to bring her catalog back to the service. She pulled all her music from Spotify just ahead of the release of her 2014 album 1989 and hasn’t brought any of it back yet. She has specifically cited Spotify’s free tier as her issue with the service in the past. Other notable holdouts like Adele used a different strategy — she kept her recent album 25 off of all streaming services for a good six months or so but eventually put it out there, including on Spotify’s free tier.

Source: Music Business Worldwide

Apple is sorry about the Mac Pro, vows to relaunch it in 2018

The last new Mac Pro was announced back in 2013, and not much has changed much since. The iconic shiny objet proved a difficult fit for its pro users, and as a consequence Apple is apparently fundamentally rethinking its top-end computer series and everything that comes with it. According to a roundtable the company held with reporters earlier this week, Phil Schiller, Apple’s SVP of worldwide marketing added that since its new Pro will be a far more modular system, you can also expect a new Pro display to land alongside it. However, it told Buzzfeed that “You won’t see any of these products this year.” That’s because Apple’s engineering team is apparently still working to design a system that can easily and efficiently be upgraded — the biggest issue many had with the current Mac Pro.

We’ll note that the Pro devices are a smaller part of Apple’s computer pie: Schiller noted that desktop make up just 20 percent of the Macs it ships — and its Mac sales were up in 2016, compared to the still-shrinking Windows PC market. Apple said that its Mac Pro owners are a “single-digit percentage.”

Regarding the existing model, “We designed ourselves into a bit of a corner,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s SVP of Software Engineering. The Pro had a triangular heat-sink system that didn’t lend itself well to pro-level upgrades. The company was also taking the chance to reiterate that its Mac series remains very important to it. Schiller, talking to Techcrunch: “The Mac has an important, long future at Apple… and if we’ve had a pause in upgrades and updates on that, we’re sorry for that — what happened with the Mac Pro, and we’re going to come out with something great to replace it.”

“We’ve asked the team to go and re-architect and design something great for the future that those Mac Pro customers who want more expandability, more upgradability in the future’, added Schiller, according to Daring Fireball.

The existing Mac Pro isn’t going anywhere just yet — Apple just announced a performance bump for it, one that will make the computers “faster and better for their dollar.” It’s shaved a thousand bucks off its 6-core Intel Xeon processor, dual AMD FirePro D500 GFX rig (now $2,999), while introducing a new $3,999 rig with an 8-core processor and dual FirePro D700 graphics. Anyone waiting for more than a bump is going to have to wait until 2018.

Source: Buzzfeed, Techcrunch, Daring Fireball

Apple is making an iMac with pros in mind

When you think “pro desktop,” you probably don’t think of the iMac. You can get one with a pro-quality display and a high-end (consumer) processor that will do the job for many tasks, but you likely wouldn’t buy one for massive 3D modeling or video projects. However, Apple might have you changing your mind before long. As part of a roundtable on the future of Mac desktops, the company’s Phil Schiller has promised that there will be iMac configurations made “specifically with the pro customer in mind” later in 2017. And before you ask: no, this doesn’t mean a touchscreen-centric design akin to Microsoft’s Surface Studio.

Schiller claims that touch input “doesn’t even register” on the concerns brought up by pros. They’re thinking “performance and storage and expandability,” he says. This probably doesn’t mean tearing open your iMac like you would a typical mid-tower desktop, but there are obvious candidates for improvements. You could see faster processors (such as Xeons or Core i7s with more than four cores), better graphics chipsets than the mobile parts you see now, higher-capacity storage options and, of course, Thunderbolt 3 ports.

There are limits to what you can stuff into an all-in-one chassis, and it’s reasonable to say that the iMac won’t scratch the itch for many pros — these are the people who frequently want 12-core chips, multiple graphics cards and as much memory as humanly possible. But between this and the planned 2018 Mac Pro redesign, it’s evident that Apple is acknowledging complaints that it isn’t taking desktops seriously.

Source: BuzzFeed News, TechCrunch

ICYMI: DIY Iron Man

Today on In Case You Missed it: British inventor Richard Browning show us his (slow, careful) flights across a test area using his “Daedelus” jet pack prototype. Daedelus consists of six kerosene-powered microjets strapped to his limbs, which doesn’t sound dangerous at all. While that might sound like a bad idea, the system “flies” at a walking pace, and the wearer only hovers about six to ten feet off the ground. For his part, Browning’s convinced the jets are safe, stating that he uses small amounts of kerosene and has a dead-man’s switch to kill the set-up when not pressed. For now, Browning is mostly shopping the device around at exhibitions, but he hopes it will one day be used by rescue or military personnel.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the rocket science spectrum, NASA’s jet propulsion laboratory is working on robots that can withstand roving throughout frozen planets and moons. While scientists would love to be able to explore Europa, or Titan, or subsurface oceans the technology to prepare robotic systems for cryogenic temperatures and rugged terrains doesn’t technically exist yet. JPL is developing tools for future robotic rovers to use while tunneling through the frozen crust of a planet, using thermal insulation and a plutonium energy source. The department is also working on a gripper — or foldable boom arm — to pick up objects as far as 30 feet away, and a projectile launcher that can shoot objects up to 164 feet. Basically a t-shirt gun, but a bit more fancy.

As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @Dameright.

Apple Updates Mac Pro, Says All-New Model With Apple-Branded Pro Displays Coming Beyond 2017

Apple today introduced spec-bumped versions of the current Mac Pro, marking the first updates to Apple’s pro-oriented desktop in over three years. Apple also confirmed it is working on a “completely rethought” Mac Pro with Apple-branded pro displays that will launch at some point beyond this year.

The existing Quad-Core model with dual AMD FirePro D300 GPUs is now 6-Cores with dual D500 GPUs for $2,999, while the 6-Core model with dual AMD FirePro D500 GPUs is now 8-Cores with dual D800 GPUs for $3,999. Apple said there are no other hardware changes, so Thunderbolt 3 ports remain notably lacking.

Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller via Daring Fireball:

With regards to the Mac Pro, we are in the process of what we call “completely rethinking the Mac Pro.” We’re working on it. We have a team working hard on it right now, and we want to architect it so that we can keep it fresh with regular improvements, and we’re committed to making it our highest-end, high-throughput desktop system, designed for our demanding pro customers.

As part of doing a new Mac Pro — it is, by definition, a modular system — we will be doing a pro display as well. Now you won’t see any of those products this year; we’re in the process of that. We think it’s really important to create something great for our pro customers who want a Mac Pro modular system, and that’ll take longer than this year to do.

In the interim, we know there are a number of customers who continue to buy our [current Mac Pros]. To be clear, our current Mac Pro has met the needs of some of our customers, and we know clearly not all of our customers. None of this is black and white, it’s a wide variety of customers. Some… it’s the kind of system they wanted; others, it was not.

In the meantime, we’re going to update the configs to make it faster and better for their dollar. This is not a new model, not a new design, we’re just going to update the configs. We’re doing that this week. We can give you the specifics on that.

The CPUs, we’re moving them down the line. The GPUs, down the line, to get more performance per dollar for customers who DO need to continue to buy them on the interim until we get to a newly architected system.

More information to follow…

Related Roundup: Mac Pro
Buyer’s Guide: Mac Pro (Don’t Buy)
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Apple Says New iMacs Coming Later This Year

Apple’s marketing chief Phil Schiller and software engineering chief Craig Federighi have confirmed that Apple is working on new iMac models that the company expects to launch later this year, as reported by TechCrunch.

Apple did not share specific details about what to expect from the refresh, but Thunderbolt 3 ports and faster processors are likely at the very least.

Related Roundup: iMac
Buyer’s Guide: iMac (Don’t Buy)
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Trump Administration Delivers on H-1B Visa Overhaul, Affecting Tech Companies Hiring Foreign Talent

Apple and other technology companies in Silicon Valley will now find it more difficult to bring foreign workers into the U.S. through the H-1B work visa program, thanks to the Trump administration’s follow-through of one immigration-related “America first” promise. In January, the administration drafted an executive order outlining an overhaul of various work visa programs, including H-1B, that tech companies use to hire integral employees from outside the U.S.

The original draft proposal stated that tech companies relying on foreign hiring did not serve “the U.S. national interest,” and now the Trump administration has rolled out a collection of policy shifts to begin pivoting the program to better serve American workers (via Bloomberg). The changes began last Friday when the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency “made it harder” for tech companies to bring foreign workers to the U.S. using the H-1B work visa.

This week, both the USCIS and the Justice Department issued memos outlining a rallying of support for the new administration’s focus on American workers who have the same skills as foreign workers. Allegations against the H-1B work visa program point towards tech companies abusing the cheaper cost of foreign workers as a money saving measure, which the USCIS has repeatedly referred to as “fraud and abuse” in its new memo.

The Justice Department has warned employers “not to discriminate against U.S. workers,” and is readying investigative plans that will “vigorously prosecute” any company who is reported to violate the new rules.

The Justice Department cautioned employers petitioning for H-1B visas not to discriminate against U.S. workers. The warning came as the federal government began accepting employers’ H-1B visa petitions for the next fiscal year. The H-1B visa program allows companies in the United States to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations such as science and information technology.

“The Justice Department will not tolerate employers misusing the H-1B visa process to discriminate against U.S. workers,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Tom Wheeler of the Civil Rights Division. “U.S. workers should not be placed in a disfavored status, and the department is wholeheartedly committed to investigating and vigorously prosecuting these claims.”

While the new guidelines will make it tougher for tech companies to hire foreign workers, they don’t make it impossible. In the USCIS policy memorandum released last week, it’s detailed that companies will have to provide more evidence to prove that the computer programming position in question is “complex, specialized, or unique” in some way that justifies the position being filled by a foreign worker whose skills could not be found in the U.S.

Associate professor Ron Hira, who has researched the H-1B work visa program, previously pointed out that the changes will directly affect companies hiring for cheap labor, while companies hiring for legally skilled workers will have less of an issue with the policy shift. “This is a step in the right direction in terms of tightening up the eligibility,” said Hira. “You’re going to have to beef up your argument for why you need this person.”

In an interview with Bloomberg, Carnegie Mellon University professor Vivek Wadhwa said that while the H-1B visa is “flawed,” the solution to the program’s problem — namely declining salaries — lies in the green card.

“The H-1B visa is a flawed visa, but the problem is the next step – the green card. Because what happens is that when people have applied for permanent resident visas, they’re now stuck in this H-1B visa loop. The easiest fix to the immigration problem, this issue about declining salaries, is to untether the visa from the [hiring] company. In other words, if a company hires someone on a H-1B visa, and [the employee] gets someone offering them a higher salary, then they can leave and continue over there. This way there’s no cheaper labor anymore.”

For Apple, the company has cited concern for the specific ways that Trump’s order “will affect many visa holders who work hard here in the United States and contribute to our country’s success.” In a letter penned by Apple and a collection of various tech companies back in February, the group said that it is “critical” that the U.S. continues to attract intelligent workers from around the world, while telling the Trump administration that they are available as a resource “to help achieve immigration policies that both support the work of American businesses and reflect American values.”

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.

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