Boeing shows what its deep space habitat could look like

NASA teamed up with six companies to develop deep space vehicles as part of its NextSTEP program last year. Boeing, one of the six, has now given us an idea of what its creations could look like. The company has revealed concept images of its deep space habitat and transport vehicle that could make it possible to send humans to Mars from a lunar base. Pictured above is the Deep Space Gateway, the habitat Boeing wants to send to cislunar space. It could house critical research for human exploration and could dock other vehicles using a system similar to the International Space Station’s.

It could also serve as the home base for the Deep Space Transport vehicle Boeing will build to send humans to Mars. The transport system pictured below will have living quarters so spacefarers can endure the lengthy journey. Astronauts can either stay on board or send a lander to the red planet for surface missions.

Both the transport vehicle and the gateway habitat will be powered by solar electric propulsion system, the promising technology NASA used for the Dawn spacecraft and the same one it’s developing further for future Martian missions. Boeing says it plans to launch the habitat in four parts through NASA’s powerful Space Launch System rocket. It expects to start sending to and assembling the Gateway in cislunar space as soon as the early 2020s

Boeing Deep Space Transit Vehicle

Source: Boeing

Tesla’s market value surpasses Ford

Ford is currently valued at about $45.1 billion. Tesla is now worth $47.8 billion, reports Bloomberg. Last year, Tesla delivered less than 80,000 cars. Ford, America’s second largest automaker, sold 6.7 million vehicles.

Tesla’s stock was up over five percent after reporting it has delivered 25,000 vehicles (nearly half of which were the Model X) in the first quarter of 2017. Investors take it as a sign that Tesla can back up its goals for growth ahead of the launch of the Model 3. Tencent’s investment in the electric car startup helped boost its price, too. Of course, Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to poke a little fun at those who paint a dark picture Tesla’s future.

Stormy weather in Shortville …

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 3, 2017

Ford has been making cars for over 100 years, and its value is the product of tangible results. For some, like AutoPacific analyst Dave Sullivan, Tesla’s overtaking of Ford “does not compute,” as he tells Bloomberg. “It’s mind-boggling that a company that has the global breadth and depth that Ford has is suddenly valued at less than or equal to Tesla,” Sullivan said.

Tesla’s potential potential for growth is built into the stock price. Elon Musk says Tesla could produce up to 500,000 vehicles a year in 2018, after the launch of the Model 3. Whether or not that will actually happen is totally unclear. Tesla, though, is a brand people are excited and optimistic about, investors included, and good news creates market action. The fact that Tesla and Ford are similarly valued only highlights their differences, and the ability of a buzz-worthy brand to convince people to invest their money in a hypothetical future.

Related Video:

Source: Bloomberg, Elon Musk (Twitter)

Sony’s slow-mo friendly Xperia XZs goes on sale this week

As smartphones have evolved to basically all look the same, manufacturers have been keen to capitalize on gimmicks to entice customers. Sony didn’t buck that trend with the forthcoming, monolithic Xperia XZs and its rear camera that’s capable of shooting at 960 frames per-second. The electronics company says that frame-rate allows for video that’s four times slower than any other smartphone on the market. More than that, the shooter pulls a trick from the Pixel’s playbook and starts taking photos before you actually press the shutter button. Pre-orders are open, and Sony says that come April 5th you can grab an unlocked version from Amazon, Best Buy and elsewhere for $700.

Source: Sony

Sonos Playbase review: The only speaker your living room needs

The idea of having high-quality home theater audio seems great until you actually try and set it up. I’ve owned a few surround sound systems, but the additional speakers and cables added a level of complexity that never felt worth it to me. So I’ve been languishing for years with mediocre audio coming from my built-in TV speakers. It doesn’t sound great, but at least I have a clean setup that doesn’t require extra hardware and a mess of cables.

But the Sonos Playbase has me thinking that it’s time to upgrade. This massive speaker, wide and flat like a pizza box, is designed to sit underneath your TV, and includes three distinct audio channels as well as a built-in subwoofer. Like all other Sonos products, it uses WiFi to connect to other speakers and lets you stream music from just about any service you can think of, but it also outputs all of your TV audio. Sure, it’s not a full 5.1 setup, but a one-box, one-cord solution to upgrade my home theater seems like just what I need. Still, as with almost everything Sonos does, it doesn’t come cheap: $700 in this case. For those who want better sound in their living room, the Playbase is a compelling option — particularly if you’re a music fan.

Hardware

The Playbase has an unusual shape compared with most speakers, but there’s a clear reason for this odd design: It’s meant to sit on a media stand with a TV on top. Sonos says the device can support most televisions up to 60 inches or up to 77 pounds. Bigger sets that have stands with legs on either side can usually be placed over the Playbase as well. Of course, it can be used with wall-mounted TVs too, but one of the speaker’s main selling points is that it can bear the weight of a television on top of it without an impact on audio quality. Indeed, Sonos claims that its research shows that 70 percent of TV owners never mount their TVs to the wall; if that’s true, there’s a lot of people who could use a speaker like the Playbase.

Like Sonos’ last speaker, the Play:5, the Playbase is a simple, sleek thing that shows great attention to detail. Yes, it’s a big plastic box, but the soft-touch finish feels extremely durable, not to mention pleasant underneath your fingers. That’s good, because there are a few touch-sensitive controls right near the front of the speaker. Other examples of the Playbase’s refined fit and finish include the CNC-drilled holes on the front face. Sonos specifically picked that pattern to minimize visual distraction without affecting sound quality. There’s only so much to say about a giant white box (it also comes in black), but it exudes polish and quality — something you definitely want from a $700 product.

All told, it’s an exceedingly simple device. There are those touch-sensitive controls on the front of the speaker. Tapping above the Sonos logo will play or pause music, while tapping to the left or right will decrease or increase volume. And you can swipe left to right to go forward in your playlist; swiping in the other direction goes back a track. These are the same controls that Sonos included on the Play:5, and they’re equally welcome here. The only other button is on the left side of the Playbase; you press it during setup to get the speaker connected to your WiFi network (more on setup in a moment). Around back are ports for power, Ethernet and optical audio. That’s it.

This is a top view of the Playbase after a TV was placed on top of it. The gray bar is one of the TV legs, and it left some ugly scrapes just below it.

The Playbase did let me down in one big way. As I was setting up my review unit, I somehow managed to put a few scuffs on the otherwise pristine white surface. I wasn’t really able to get them out either. While I haven’t noticed them since setting up the speaker, as they’re mostly covered by my TV, I was still disheartened to discover that I was able to mark up such a lovely device so easily. If you’re the type of person who moves a lot or is a bit harder on your belongings, you might be better off with the black version. In my case, though, the white speaker looks great alongside my white PS4, those scuffs notwithstanding.

Setup

The Playbase’s simplicity extends to the setup too. Once I placed the speaker under my TV, I plugged it into the wall and hooked it up with the included optical audio cable. The Sonos iOS app then walked me through everything I needed to do. (There’s an Android application as well.) Setup was a little easier, since I already had Sonos speakers in my house, which means I already have a Sonos account. Even so, starting from scratch is simple enough. The Sonos app scans and finds nearby speakers and connects them to the WiFi network your mobile device is on. All I had to do was follow the app’s directions and press the button on the side of the speaker to connect it and it was basically good to go. You’ll also likely need to switch your TV’s setting to output audio to an external device rather than its built-in speaker.

The Playbase uses the same “Trueplay” room-tuning technology that Sonos introduced alongside the Play:5 in late 2015. If you haven’t used it before, Trueplay basically adjusts the audio characteristics of Sonos’ speakers to make them sound as good as possible, regardless of where they’re placed in a room. The process is slightly different when tuning the Playbase, because the speaker is meant for both music and movies.

First, the app asks you to sit where you’ll most often watch TV, and then you’ll walk around the room to tune the speaker for music playback. It takes a bit longer, but it’s still super easy and can make a noticeable difference. I didn’t notice a big change with Trueplay turned on or off, but your mileage will vary based on your particular room. One downside: Trueplay still requires an iOS device. The company says that the huge variety and variability of microphones found in Android phones make it too difficult to tune speakers reliably. That’s not to say the speaker sounds bad without it, though; indeed, I wouldn’t call this a deal-breaker for households without an iDevice.

Movies and TV

Now we’re on to the best part about testing this speaker: sitting back and watching a lot of TV. For my tests, I streamed movies and shows from Netflix, Hulu and iTunes via my Apple TV, and I also watched some movies on Blu-ray through my PS4. Regardless of the source, the Playbase was an immediate and massive upgrade over my TV’s built-in speakers.

The subwoofer that Sonos managed to cram into the Playbase provided the most significant upgrade. Explosions in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Interstellar and Inception all delivered room-rumbling bass that a TV simply can’t provide on its own. The impact of the subwoofer isn’t limited to space action films, either. When Sauron was temporarily vanquished in the prologue of Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, his helmet hit the ground with startling force.

While epic moments in big films are a great showcase for the Playbase, that’s not the only place where it shines. When Sonos first unveiled the speaker, company execs talked about the importance of delivering super-clear dialogue. Indeed, the Playbase delivers that in spades. A speaker of this caliber simply makes everything sound more “present” — like the characters are right in the room with you. Big bass may turn heads, but crystal-clear dialogue is something you’ll appreciate every single day, regardless of what you’re watching.

Even sitcoms like Parks and Recreation and The Office sounded noticeably better than when I watched with standard TV speakers. One Parks and Rec scene featured a character speaking to a crowd through a megaphone, and I could hear the scratchy, amplified characteristics of that speech in a way I wouldn’t have noticed on lesser speakers. And, as silly as it sounds, the theme song for The Office has never sounded so good.

Speaking of music, film scores sound excellent as well. They generally take a backseat to dialogue and sound effects, but hearing John Williams’, Hans Zimmer’s and Howard Shore’s epic musical landscapes blasting forth with tremendous depth was almost as much fun as the big explosions. Inception was another great test for the speaker: The trademark two-hit musical cue blared forth like a siren, and the movie’s excellent closing sequence and accompanying score hit hard.

As with the Play:5, the area where the Playbase shows some weakness is in stereo separation. That’s not to say you don’t get any stereo effects here. Ships and laser blasts in The Force Awakens panned across the soundscape as they did on-screen — just not with the same dramatic effect that you’d get from a multi-speaker setup. It’s still a clear upgrade from the internal speakers that I’m used to, but it doesn’t quite hit the theatrical level of immersion you’ll get with dedicated left, right and center speakers.

While I didn’t get to test this out, it’s worth noting that the Playbase lets you wirelessly sync with the Sonos Sub and two Play:1 speakers to build a 5.1 surround sound setup out of four wireless speakers. And if the internal subwoofer is enough for you, you can also just use the Playbase with the two Play:1 speakers for a cheaper and less complex setup. As someone with surround sound ambitions, the idea of using the Play:1 as wireless back speakers is extremely compelling, if not super affordable; those speakers cost $200 each, while the Sub alone commands a cool $700. For me, the internal sub was more than sufficient, so I don’t plan on shelling out for a dedicated unit anytime soon.

Music

If you’ve been using Sonos for a while, it’s likely been for tunes: The company was one of the first to make it easy to stream music to high-quality speakers. (If you haven’t used Sonos much before, our Play:5 review offers a great overview of how its wireless music streaming system works.) So while the Playbase was designed with home theater in mind, it has to perform when playing back music as well. Fortunately, music playback is outstanding. Unscientifically, I’ll say it sounds nearly as good as a single Play:5 speaker, and it absolutely smokes the smaller Play:1 I have in my living room when it comes to clarity and volume.

Though the Playbase’s stereo performance while watching movies didn’t exactly blow me away, it actually sounds excellent here. I listened to a wide variety of songs I know inside and out and still managed to experience the music in a fresh way, thanks to some dramatic stereo panning. Vocals were clear and detailed, on par with dialogue in movies and TV shows.

For most people looking for a dedicated audio speaker, they’d probably do better with a Play:5; it’s fantastic and $200 cheaper. But the versatility of the Playbase is a huge point in its favor. If I had to choose between a $500 Play:5 and a $700 Playbase for my living room, I’d probably get the Playbase. It gives up very little in terms of audio quality compared with the Play:5 and feels like a huge upgrade when you’re watching movies and TV shows.

The competition

The Sonos Playbase, pictured here below the Sonos Playbar mounted to the wall.

Sonos has played up the Playbase’s rather unique form factor, but there are other speaker bases on the market. The $300 ZVOX 570 sits under your TV and has a built-in subwoofer, just like the Playbase. The $379 Bose Solo 15 Series II doesn’t have a sub, but it does include Bose’s “Truespace” technology, which works with the center speaker to enhance dialogue. JBL’s $230 Cinema Base also has built-in subwoofers. Of course, none of these speakers have Sonos’ streaming capabilities, though you can send audio to all of them over Bluetooth. Finally, none of them offer the ability to build a wireless 5.1 setup with other Sonos speakers. On the other hand, these speakers all cost less than half what you’ll pay for the Playbase.

If you don’t need your speaker to double as a stand, Sonos’ own Playbar offers a similar feature set (minus the subwoofer) for the same $700 price as the Playbase. And if you look beyond Sonos, there’s a veritable flood of soundbars available from major home audio companies like Sony, Vizio, Yamaha, Samsung, Denon and Paradigm, among others. You can spend a lot less than you would on the Playbase, or spend much, much more, depending on your proclivities.

Wrap-up

As I noted earlier, the Playbase is an extremely compelling one-speaker option for the living room, particularly if you’re a music fan. It’s easy to set up and adds very little complexity to most TV rigs; not having to run lots of cords is a huge win in my eyes. And once you’re set up, it simply makes watching movies a lot more fun, whether they’re big-budget action flicks or quiet, hushed dramas. Either way, dialogue sounds great. And its music performance is outstanding. It’s not quite as good as Sonos’ own Play:5, but the versatility of having one speaker that works great for both TV and music is hard to top.

Of course, at $700, it had better hit all these marks. In a vacuum, that’s a lot of money to spend on a speaker, particularly if you’re someone like me who’s been content enough to live with boring built-in TV speakers. And there are many less expensive soundbars you could buy to improve your TV audio. On the other hand, the Playbase’s versatility between music and movies is unmatched, making for a speaker I would use nearly every single day. It’s great for watching TV on weeknights, or movies on the weekends, and for playing music anytime I want.

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For exactly zero dollars, this photographer built a working lens out of trash

Why it matters to you

With some tinkering and a bit of luck, this video shows how you can build a no-cost lens out of just about anything.

If you’ve spent the last few months trying to win over your significant over and convince them you need an expensive new lens for your camera, maybe don’t show them this video. Self-proclaimed experimental photographer Mathieu Stern is back with another cost-saving photography tip that seems almost too good to be true. With a bit of scavenging, some rubber bands, and a few minutes of his time, he assembled a functional 135mm camera lens out of items he found in the trash.

Aptly dubbed the “Crapinon,” the lens is literally garbage — which both refers to how it was made and the fact that it is really not sharp at all. However, we can’t help but be impressed with the results, soft as they are. The photos have a very retro, film aesthetic, with subdued contrast and colors. It’s a look that will undoubtedly help propel your Instagram account to unimaginable new heights.

More: Now on Kickstarter, this low-tech paper camera shoots instant photos without electricity

Stern built the lens to work on a full-frame camera. He arrived at the focal length of 135mm after some experimentation. As for the aperture, which is fixed without a mechanical iris diaphragm, he believes it is between f/2 and f/3, according to DIYPhotography. Based on the very shallow depth of field of the sample photos, that would seem to make sense.

Of course, actually being able to reproduce Stern’s Crapinon may not be quite so easy as he makes it seem. For one, most of us likely don’t have M42 tubes and focusing helicoids just lying around. Rummaging through flea markets also isn’t guaranteed to turn up a suitable optic. Still, it is good to know that if you happen upon one and if you have access to the associated required parts, a little elbow grease and trial and error will let you turn it into a surprisingly usable lens for your mirrorless camera or DSLR.

Apple iPad 9.7-inch (2017) review

Research Center:
Apple iPad 9.7

Until recently, Apple’s iPad lineup consisted of the iPad Air 2, iPad Mini 4, and the 12.9-inch and 9.7-inch iPad Pro. If that was too confusing for customers to remember, Apple has made it a little easier by replacing the iPad Air 2 with the new iPad. Now you get a choice of the mini, the regular, and the pro models.

The new iPad is the 5th generation in the lineup, and it’s not a dazzling product. It’s the culmination of iPads before it, figuratively and literally — an iFixit teardown found the device to heavily borrow and recycle design elements and components from the iPad Air series.

That doesn’t mean it’s bad — in fact, it helps create the killer feature for the 2017 iPad: A low price tag. At $330, this is the everyman’s tablet. Apple thinks this will be a great device for its education programs, but what about for the average consumer? Let’s take a closer look.

Familiar design, bright display

Apple hardly implements major design changes over the years; even less so in its iPad lineup than any other product. The new iPad … well, looks like an iPad. The design is a little stale, but it works. It has the same dimensions as the iPad Air 2, but it’s a little thicker at 7.5mm (which is still really thin), and a tad heavier at 1.03 pounds.

More: iPad Pro review

The iconic, shiny Apple logo sits in the middle of the back, with the flush camera on the top left, and models with cellular connectivity have a black or white bar at the top on the rear. On the front, Apple has kept the physical button rather than the force-sensitive one on the iPhone 7. The screen is surrounded by large bezels; there’s a front-facing camera at the top; volume buttons sit on the right edge, and a power button on the top edge. The buttons are click-y and responsive.

Julian Chokkatuu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkatuu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkatuu/Digital Trends

Julian Chokkatuu/Digital Trends

A Lightning port sits at the bottom edge, and you’ll find the only two speaker ports surrounding it as opposed to the extra two on the top edge of the iPad Pro models. The speakers produce loud audio that’s great for watching movies or listening to music, but they’re obviously not as good as the sound quality on the Pro models, which can get even louder and provide a better stereo experience. The bass is a little tough to hear, but you’ll still find far better audio quality here than most tablets in the price range.

At $330, this is the everyman’s tablet.

The 9.7-inch display makes the new iPad ideal for watching videos. The screen is bright — Apple says it’s 25 percent brighter than the iPad Air 2 to be exact — and it’s easily visible in direct sunlight. Even though it shares the same 2048 x 1536 pixel resolution as the iPad Pro, though, don’t expect the same quality. The iPad Pro has a wide-color display that offers more realistic colors, but it also costs nearly double the price. It’s great for creatives and artists who rely on color accuracy, but if you’re looking to use the new iPad for more casual purposes such as reading, watching movies, and browsing the web, then you won’t be disappointed.

While it’s not as thin as the iPad Air 2, the new iPad is thin and hardly adds any noticeable weight when carrying it around in a bag. The build quality here is great, though the screen tends to pick up fingerprints and dust rather easily.

Snappy performance with iOS 10

The new iPad features Apple’s A9 processor, the same powering the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, with an embedded M9 co-processor and 2GB of RAM. The result? The company’s operating system, iOS 10, consistently runs smooth and fast — we encountered hardly any performance hiccups in our testing, from watching YouTube videos, browsing social media and the web, to playing intensive games like Injustice: Gods Among Us, and Unkilled.

More: Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 review

You have the option between 32GB or 128GB — say goodbye to the old 16GB storage standard — but there are no 3D Touch features you’ll find on your iPhone. The home button, however, doubles as the Touch ID fingerprint scanner and is, as always, a quick way to unlock the device.

Julian Chokkatuu/Digital Trends

But iOS 10 is the standout here. iPads are the best tablets you can buy because of the wide range of tablet-optimized apps that make use of the screen real-estate — it’s a point where Android seriously lags.

Multitasking gestures, such as using four fingers to swipe between your most recent apps, make it easy to move through different apps, but not as well as on the 12.9-inch iPad Pro (I may just have large hands). Features such as Split View and Slide Over allow for a quick way to deal with other tasks while focusing on something else. We noticed the occasional stutter when using Split View for some time, so don’t expect the same level of performance as the Pro models. Still, we managed to do some light work such as sending emails, writing on Google Docs, and browsing the web without running into any issues.

iOS 10 runs smooth and fast — we encountered hardly any performance hiccups in our testing.

The cameras seem to be similar to the setup on the iPad Air 2 — an 8-megapixel rear camera with an f/2.4 aperture, and a 1.2-megapixel selfie camera with an f/2.2 aperture. Both are snappy with almost no shutter lag, and those of you that use tablets to take photos will be happy to hear that the rear camera does a great job of offering good quality and detail. Your iPhone will still be the better choice, though.

The front-facing camera is grainy and has poor image quality due to the low 1.2-megapixel count. Still, using Facetime in 720p, it does the job.

Long battery life

With a bigger 8,610mAh battery than the Air 2 (which explains the thickness), this iPad has refused to die on us. We have used it for more than a week in Wi-Fi-only mode, with some use every day, and it only recently dipped under 40 percent.

Keep in mind that with LTE connectivity, expect to lose battery life more quickly.

Warranty information

Apple’s iPads come with a standard limited warranty that offers up to 90 days of support and one year of hardware repair. The Genius Bar at every Apple Store is also there to help in case you have any issues. You can purchase AppleCare+ as well, as it will extend your warranty an extra year for $100, while also adding coverage for up to two incidents of accidental damage.

Apple iPad 9.7 Compared To

Samsung Galaxy Tab S3

Chuwi Hi12 Windows 10 2-in-1

Dell Venue 8 7000

Nvidia Shield Tablet

Apple iPad Air 2

Lenovo ThinkPad 10

Dell Venue 8 Pro

Apple iPad Mini 2

Microsoft Surface 2

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 (8-inch)

Razer Edge Pro

Dell Latitude 10

Dell XPS 10

Acer Iconia Tab W700

Acer Iconia Tab A700

Our Take

What would have made the new iPad a killer deal is support for Apple Pencil, which sadly it does not have. If you spend $270 more, you can get the 9.7-inch iPad Pro which offers quad speakers, a better display, Apple Pencil support, Smart Keyboard support, a better camera, and more. For $330, though, you’re still getting an iPad that can perform ordinary tasks incredibly well.

This is the everyman’s tablet. The tablet you can use to consume media and browse the web, and the tablet you can use to perform light to moderately-heavy work tasks while expecting smooth performance.

While it’s not as wallet-friendly as some Android tablets, it’s the cheapest iPad you can buy from Apple.

Are there better alternatives?

There are some decent Android options at this price point, such as the Amazon Fire HD 8 or the Asus ZenPad 3S 10, but they won’t offer the best array of tablet-optimized apps as the new iPad.

The DT Accessory Pack

AirPods

$159

iPad Smart Cover

$39

AmazonBasics Bluetooth Keyboard

$18

That’s not to say that there aren’t any good Android tablets — the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 and the Google Pixel C say otherwise, but they both cost $500 or more.

How long will it last?

You can expect the new iPad to have a much longer shelf life than the competition, partly because Apple offers instant security and version updates. Unlike most Android devices, you can also expect support for longer than two years.

Expect the new iPad to last for approximately three to four years.

Should you buy it?

Yes. Even if you don’t have an iPhone, the iPad is a great, affordable tool to have around for streaming or watching movies and TV shows; it offers solid multitasking capabilities if you’re feeling productive; and it’s light enough to throw in your backpack and use on your commute. For a price tag of $330, it’s a steal.

NASA’s retiring EO-1 satellite changed how we see Earth with these stunning photos

Last week, NASA retired one of its greats — the Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite. Initially commissioned for the agency’s New Millennium Program, EO-1 proved to be the satellite that could. Its one-year mission turned into nearly 17.

EO-1 was never meant to be such a star. In fact, its original purpose was to test and refine technologies for future Earth imaging. It was launched on November 21, 2000 with 13 new technologies, three of which had never been tested. Many of the most stunning images were capture by the Advanced Land Imager (ALI).

“EO-1 has changed the way spectral Earth measurements are being made and used by the science community,” Betsy Middleton, EO-1’s project scientist said in a NASA news release.

But EO-1 did more than just prove a few instruments. During it’s mission the satellite captured a bunch of remarkable images, many of them firsts for a satellite, including the first to map of an active lava flow, first to measure a facility’s methane leak, and the first track Amazon forest regrowth.

“We’ll probably just see EO-1 as a streak in the sky as it disintegrates.”

The White House is saving all of Trump’s deleted tweets

Five days after Trump’s inauguration, news leaked that his staff was continuing to use email linked to a private server. While that’s not illegal (though hypocritical, given Hillary’s election pillorying), it requires those using non-government emails to disclose them. If that doesn’t happen — if those messages aren’t forwarded to an official account and stored for posterity — the offender violates the Presidential Records Act. It seems the same could apply to Trump’s tweets: The White House has agreed to the US National Archives’ request that they save every one, including those he deletes.

National Archives and Records Administration tells White House to keep each of President Donald Trump’s tweets. https://t.co/7iKj7QOm4q

— The Associated Press (@AP) April 3, 2017

We don’t know exactly how they’re archiving his tweets, but it’s the first confirmation that even his retracted and typo-filled messages will be saved. But concerns to save them came soon after it was clear Trump would continue his feverish Twitter posting. Back in February, Tom Carper (DE) and Claire McCaskill (MO) sent a letter to Secretary of Defense James Mattis asking after the security of Trump’s unsecured Android smartphone (which he only replaced last week).

David S. Ferriero, head of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), replied to the pair and assured them Trump’s Twitter messages would be saved. The White House had acquiesced to Ferriero’s requests to save the President’s current and future tweets, including ones that were deleted.

NARA was formed after the Nixon administration to make public the archives of Presidential correspondence. It’s the kind of safeguard that was supposed to protect against things like the George W. Bush administration “losing” 22 million emails between 2003 and 2009. In the event that the Trump team permits a similarly obscene level of erasure of public documents, at least ProPublica is looking after his deleted tweets, which they’ve tracked back to June 2015.

Via: Mashable

Source: The Associated Press

Google hopes license sharing will stop Android patent trolls

With over 4,000 different devices released in the last year alone, the Android ecosystem is massive. That kind of scale can lead to a lot of copyright confusion and patent squabbling on the platform, which Google would probably like to avoid in the future. So, to save everyone the licensing headaches and unnecessary lawsuits, Google has just announced PAX — a short acronym for the long-winded “Android Networked Cross-License Agreement.”

Like Google’s own License on Transfer Network, PAX is meant to deter patent trolls by making them the patents covered by the network free to use. In short, the companies that join PAX are are agreeing not to sue each other over software patents related to Android and Google applications. The agreement also allows Android partners to use each other’s software patents royalty-free on those same platforms. The list of companies who are already on board with PAX includes some of the big names you might expect, like Samsung, LG, Foxconn, HTC and others. According to Google VP of Android operations Jamie Rosen, the network already covers 230,000 patents worldwide and anyone can join.

Source: Google Blog

Trump signs bill rolling back FCC privacy rules for ISPs

As promised, Donald Trump has signed a bill that nullifies rules introduced last year by the FCC to protect data and privacy for customers of internet service providers. Those rules would’ve blocked an ISP from selling data like a customer’s browsing history that could be used to build a profile for advertisers. After the resolution passed both the House and Senate, AT&T, Comcast and Verizon came forward to state that they don’t currently sell customer’s browser history and say they have no plans to do so.

New FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has said he thinks the FTC should build a framework for privacy rules, while the ISPs and their lobbyists argued the FCC restrictions put them at a disadvantage against companies like Google or Facebook and were confusing for customers.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and other consumers right groups disagreed, saying that “The rules—which codified and expanded on existing online privacy protections—were passed by the FCC in October of last year and set to go into effect later this year. They would have kept ISPs from selling customers’ data and using new invasive ways to track and deliver targeted ads to customers. Additionally, the rules would have required those companies to protect customers’ data against hackers.

Tens of thousands of people called on lawmakers to protect those rules, but Republicans in Congress repealed them by narrowly passing a Congressional Review Act resolution.

That measure not only repeals the rules, it also prevents the FCC from writing similar rules in the future, throwing into question how much the FCC can do to police ISPs looking to trade off their customers’ privacy for higher profits. Because of the current legal landscape, the FTC can’t police ISPs either, leaving customers without a federal agency that can clearly protect them in this space.”

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai:

President Trump and Congress have appropriately invalidated one part of the Obama-era plan for regulating the Internet. Those flawed privacy rules, which never went into effect, were designed to benefit one group of favored companies, not online consumers.

American consumers’ privacy deserves to be protected regardless of who handles their personal information. In order to deliver that consistent and comprehensive protection, the Federal Communications Commission will be working with the Federal Trade Commission to restore the FTC’s authority to police Internet service providers’ privacy practices. We need to put America’s most experienced and expert privacy cop back on the beat. And we need to end the uncertainty and confusion that was created in 2015 when the FCC intruded in this space.”

Source: EFF, Congress