The Morning After: Friday, April 14th 2017

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

This Friday, we’re saying an unexpected goodbye to the NES Classic Edition and preparing for the Model 3’s big reveal in July. Oh, and scientists took a picture of a black hole — you just can’t look at it yet.

Limited time only Nintendo is already shutting down sales of the NES Classic Edition

If you want an NES Classic Edition, then we hope you’ve already got one. Nintendo revealed that the retro box “wasn’t intended to be an ongoing, long-term product.” As such, the last shipments will arrive in April, and then it’s gone. It’s not clear if this discontinuation will also impact the Japanese Famicom Classic, but we’re just hoping for a follow-up SNES Classic Edition with downloadable ROMs and wireless controllers.

EvolutionTesla will unveil the Model 3’s final form in July

Tesla’s first mass-market EV is getting closer to production. In response to a tweet, CEO Elon Musk confirmed plans to unveil the finalized vehicle in July. Fans of the company should also mark their calendars for 18 – 24 months from now, since Musk tweeted that a Tesla pickup should be unveiled around then. Oh, and remember that Tesla semi truck? Expect to see that in September.

But it wasn’t the number one sellerNintendo sold almost a million Switches in March

We’re not surprised to find out that NPD reports the Nintendo Switch counted 906,000 sales in the US during its launch month. What is a little surprising, however, is that despite being the company’s fastest-selling console ever, it was actually outsold by The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. That flagship game somehow moved 925,000 copies on the Switch alone, along with an additional 460,000 sales for the Wii U version.

It’s real; it just lives out of townAstronomers may have taken the first photo of a black hole (but they can’t show it to you yet)

That image above is not the first picture taken of a black hole — it’s an artist’s rendering. However, astronomers operating the Event Horizon Telescope believe they have pulled off the feat. The project used a network of eight connected observatories working over five nights to observe two black holes: Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black at the center of our galaxy, and M87, which resides in a nearby galaxy. The only problem is that they collected so much data (500TB at each of observatory) that they need to ship the hard drives over to MIT for processing. Oh, and since one of them is in the South Pole, it won’t be able to send the drives until October.

Copy, paste, replaceInstagram’s Stories feature has more daily users than Snapchat’s entire service

Sure, Facebook is playing catch up to disappearing daily anecdotes, but Instagram just revealed its Stories feature now has 200 million daily users. That’s good for about a third of the people on Instagram, but more importantly, it’s more than the 158 million daily users Snapchat said it had in an IPO filing a couple of months ago.

TMI?Finally, a good digital masturbator

Kiroo’s Fleshlight Launch looks like “a cross between a sci-fi arm cannon and the cleaning dock for a Braun shaver.” As a connected device, it can be used for teledildonic activities or synchronized action with a movie, and according to Dan Cooper, it’s good at what it does. Also a plus: it doesn’t contain an easily hacked camera.

Advancing in reverseDJI adds an ‘Advanced’ version of its Phantom 4 drone

If you need a UAV and neither of DJI’s existing Phantom 4 (standard and Pro) drones fit the bill, then maybe you’ll find this one has the right fit. The Advanced model splits things down the middle with the Pro’s 4K camera, but fewer onboard sensors. As such, it’s about $300 less and will go on sale for $1,349 at the end of this month.

But wait, there’s more…

• The promise of self-driving cars starts with better ‘eye-sight’
• Trump’s transition team asked NASA about mining the moon
• LG G6 review: Finally back in the race
• The FCC just sold a chunk of the wireless spectrum to T-Mobile

Microsoft hammered by surveillance requests in 2016

US authorities must have spent more time at Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court last year than in 2015. According to Microsoft’s latest transparency report, the tech titan received 1,000 to 1,499 surveillance requests for foreign intelligence purposes (known as FISA) from January to June 2016. That’s at least double the 0 to 499 requests it received within the same period the year before and then again from July to December 2015. Those figures look weird, because the government only allows companies to report FISA requests in a wide range of numbers. We unfortunately don’t know the exact figures, though Microsoft’s report is pretty telling anyway.

Thankfully, the number of users affected by FISAs went down despite the increase in requests. Only 12,000 to 12,499 accounts were affected by the FISA orders in the first half of 2016 compared to the 17,500 to 17,999 affected accounts during the same period in 2015. It’s unclear if one of those belongs to Trump adviser Carter Page whom the FBI monitored with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court’s blessing for possible ties with the Russian government.

The other aspects of Microsoft’s transparency report look much better than the FISA section. To start with, it received 25,837 requests for customer info from law enforcement from June to December, 2016. Most of those came from American authorities, but it’s still a much smaller figure than the 35,572 requests it got in the first half of the year. Even the total number of law enforcement requests in 2016 (61,409) is significantly smaller than 2015’s total (74,311). In addition, Microsoft only received one government request for content removal from US authorities in the second half of 2016.

Finally, Microsoft can now reveal that it received a National Security Letter in 2014 for one of its user’s data, thanks to the USA Freedom Act. An NSL is a subpoena issued by the US government for the purpose of national security. It typically comes with a gag order forbidding companies to reveal they’ve received any. Microsoft included the NSL it got in its larger report for 2014, but it’s only now that it come out and say that it actually got one. Other tech titans also recently revealed the NSLs they received, including Google, which was allowed to disclose receiving eight of them these past few years.

Via: Reuters

Source: Microsoft

YouTube Dark Mode Surfaces in Latest Desktop Chrome Browser Update

Google appears to be testing a Dark Mode feature for YouTube in the latest version of its Chrome 57 desktop browser.

The built-in mode was discovered on Thursday and shared in a Reddit post, and while the setting doesn’t appear by default, a quick command in the developer console is all that’s required to enable it.

YouTube Dark Mode in Chrome with black theme enabled
Follow these steps to enable the YouTube dark mode in Chrome on Mac. Make sure you’re signed in to YouTube before performing the steps.

Press the keyboard combination shortcut Option + Command + I to open the developer tools sidebar.
Click the Console tab.
Paste document.cookie=”VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=fPQ4jCL6EiE” into the console and press enter.
Close the developer tools sidebar and refresh the YouTube page.
Click your YouTube profile picture, select Dark Mode from the dropdown, and toggle the switch to enable the mode.
Google Chrome is available to download for free on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Tag: Chrome
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Slack Chat Platform Finally Gets Custom Status Message Feature

Team chat platform Slack got a long-awaited feature on Thursday with the addition of status updates, finally allowing users to customize their status message beyond the default “away” setting.

The new “set a status” feature includes five Suggested statuses including In a meeting, Commuting, Out sick, Vacationing, and Working remotely, as well as an input field for typing a custom message – allowing users to display a return time if they’re away, for example.

Each status can be up to 100 characters and users can display an associated emoji to communicate their circumstances, but if an emoji isn’t chosen a speech ballon is shown instead. The emoji appears alongside the username in the chat window, the sidebar, and the chat room members list, while hovering over the emoji or tapping it brings up the full status message.

Some third-party apps can also modify the status message. For example, Zenefits syncs user status with its Time Off Tracking system, while Meekan shows when someone’s in a meeting (and when they’ll be free). Statuses also automatically update when a user is on a voice or video call in Slack.

Statuses can be set from the browser, desktop and mobile versions of Slack. Mac users can click their name in the upper left corner of the sidebar, then select Set a status. On iOS, users should tap the More items icon (…), or edit their status directly from their profile.

Slack is a free download for Mac on the Mac App Store and available for iPhone and iPad on the App Store.

Tag: Slack
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These robots are a match for Japan’s best volleyball players

Why it matters to you

Robotic opponents that can mimic the playing style of a specific team could become more common as teams search for ways to stay ahead of the pack.

Japan is certainly fond of its robots so it’s perhaps little surprise that the women’s national volleyball team has started using them to help improve its game.

Engineers designed a team of opponents that mimic the actions of “blockers” — players that jump close to the net with their arms aloft to prevent an attacker’s powerful shot from coming over to their side of the court.

The setup, as reported by the New Scientist, consists of three pairs of robotic arms that move left and right along a track at a speed slightly faster than that of a human player.

Smashing the ball across the net is one of the most common ways for a team to win points in volleyball, but they have to be able to outwit the opposing team’s blockers who’re waiting to slam the ball immediately down to the ground for their own point.

The unique blocking machine was created by researchers at the University of Tsukuba in partnership with the Japanese Volleyball Association and lets an operator choose the robots’ playing style using computer software.

It’s even possible to program the robots with team-specific tactics or styles of play similar to those of the opponents that the Japanese team is about to face, allowing for more effective pre-game preparation and training.

As you can see from the video above, the robots move swiftly and succeed in blocking many of the shots. But at the moment the robots can only shift into pre-determined positions and don’t react to a player’s specific actions. That should change soon, though, as the developers are working to incorporate motion sensors for an even more realistic experience.

Japanese players who went up against the robots complimented the designers of the technology when they said it felt pretty much the same as playing human opponents.

Of course, this isn’t the first time robots have entered the world of sports. There’s the annual RoboCup soccer tournament, for example, and who can forget this rather bizarre “robot crowd” employed by a South Korean baseball team to replace absent fans.

Survey says: Political polarization isn’t the internet’s fault

It’s easy to blame social media for the rising political polarization in the US when you can use it to hide in a bubble of your own creation. Simply block people who don’t share your viewpoint on Facebook and Twitter, and follow, Like and heart only people who do. According to a study conducted by economics professors from Stanford and Brown Universities, though, you can’t blame it all on social media — not when it’s older Americans who barely use the internet who are becoming more polarized.

The professors used data gathered by the American National Election Survey from 1996 to 2012 on younger, more web-savvy voters aged 18 to 39 and voters 75 years and older. They compared nine different factors, including feelings about political parties, ideological consistency and straight-ticket voting. Take note that around 80 percent of the younger people in the study use social media, while only 20 percent of the older people do.

“We find that the increase in polarization is largest among the groups least likely to use the internet and social media,” the team’s paper, which was published in March by The National Bureau of Economic Research, reads. “Across intermediate age groups, the growth in polarization is consistently higher among older respondents. Polarization increases more for the old than the young in eight of the nine individual measures.”

That doesn’t mean Facebook and the abundance of fake news that can spread through likes and shares don’t play a part. This is just one study, and even the researchers admit social media plays a role in increasing hyper-partisanship — it’s “just not the whole picture.”

Vox asked Matthew Gentzkow, one of the researchers, for possible reasons why hyper-partisanship among older voters is on the rise. He replied:

“I have two main hypotheses. One is stuff that has nothing to do with media at all but is structural, like increasing income inequality. The second is non-digital media, and cable TV and talk radio in particular.”

Since the data they used is a few years old, the study can’t really confirm whether their conclusion still applies to 2016’s presidential elections. The professors are now working to update their results with more recent data, but they said the results are unlikely to change.

Via: The New York Times, Vox

Source: The National Bureau of Economic Research

New York City’s free WiFi kiosks speed up access to social services

When New York City launched its LinkNYC gigabit free WiFi program last year, it was a win for internet accessibility. With over 800 devices currently spread across New York City, the kiosks provide municipal broadband for anyone in WiFi range, as well as charging outlets, free phone calls, maps and directions, 911 access and a built-in tablet anyone can use. While the city unfortunately had to disable the web browsers due to some users’ awkward browsing habits, LinkNYC kiosks are getting a new feature that will help users without internet access quickly find social programs and safety net services.

As Citylab reports, the kiosks are adding an app from Austin-based Aunt Bertha — the so-called “Yelp for Social Services.” Aunt Bertha maintains a database of resources like emergency housing, soup kitchens, food pantries, transportation assistance, or childcare and healthcare providers. It covers everything from government programs and large nonprofits to neighborhood services, then makes all their information searchable by zip code in one place, rather than spread out over each group’s website. According to Citylab, the LinkNYC app will also highlight nearby services based on the kiosk’s location.

LinkNYC is a consortium that includes Alphabet-owned Sidewalk Labs and the kiosks have come under scrutiny for data privacy concerns in the past, but the group expects to have 7,500 total across the city by 2025.

Via: Citylab

Apple Music Debuts Toronto’s ‘House of Strombo’ Concert Series

Top music interviewer and CBC Radio 2 host George Stroumboulopoulos debuted his new House of Strombo music series on Apple Music on Thursday (via Billboard).

The 10-episode show is a spin-off of the Canadian host’s radio series The Strombo Show, which is filmed at his Toronto home in front of a live audience. The show is set to feature video segments, artist interviews, and exclusive behind-the-scenes access. Stroumboulopoulos was interviewed by Zane Lowe on Apple Music’s Beats 1 about the partnership.

Stroumboulopoulos (left) with Zane Lowe

“The bands set-up right in my living room, with a live audience packing the place,” Stroumboulopoulos explained in a statement. “Lights, smoke machines and amplifiers stacked high — it’s every gig in a small space that you’ve ever loved, with the best bands in the world.”

The video segment of the first show features a performance and interview with Canadian group A Tribe Called Red, an Ottawa-based First Nations DJ collective. Apple Music subscribers can view it in the Browse section of the app under the Strombo banner, where playlists and other content can also be found. Going forward, videos for the show will be available in the Connect section of the Strombo page.

A longer 30-minute version of each episode can be found on YouTube. Check out the first offering embedded below.

Tag: Apple Music
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Amazon Offers Echo’s Far-Field Voice Recognition Tech to Third Parties

Amazon has fired another salvo in the virtual assistant wars by opening up access to the far-field voice recognition technology found in its Echo smart speakers so that third-party manufacturers can make their own versions (via BBC).

The move comes as Amazon attempts to spread the use of its Alexa virtual assistant across a wide range of connected products and take ownership of a larger portion of the growing smart devices market. Google announced its branded Home smart speaker in November, while Apple is also rumored to be planning a similar Siri-enabled device this year.

The initially invite-only access to the technology via the Alexa Voice Service program will give manufacturers the right to replicate the Echo’s seven-microphone array that allows the speakers to hear a voice command from across the room.

The access also means third-party developers can use the proprietary algorithms used for wake-word recognition, which focus the array on the owner’s voice and filter out echoes and other noises. Developers will be provided with a reference kit as a starting point for their own designs, and the freedom to source components from a range of parts manufacturers.

“Our vision is for Alexa to be everywhere, and that means making it available to other companies and services to integrate into a wide range of devices,” said an Amazon spokesperson.

“We expect Alexa to be in many devices over time, including products that compete with Echo, which is why we’re investing in making a wide range of hands-free and far-field reference solutions available to OEMs [original equipment manufacturers].”

Amazon’s rollout of Alexa has gained steam ever since CES 2017 in January, when the virtual assistant cropped up in a range of products including third-party smart speakers, cars, TVs, lamps, and even refrigerators.

In February Amazon announced it was extending third-party support for its Alexa Voice Service (AVS) internationally, and last month it added its Siri competitor to the company’s iOS app, allowing users to search Amazon, track orders, play music, and start audio books from Audible.

Tags: Amazon Echo, Alexa
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Google Aero is a hyperlocal food delivery and home services app for India

Google is now targeting the hyperlocal segment with Aero.

Google has launched several India-specific initiatives recently, including a data-friendly version of YouTube and free public Wi-Fi at train stations. The company is now setting its sights on the burgeoning hyperlocal segment with a new app called Aero.

Rather than competing with already-existing services, Google is positioning Aero as a place to find all available options from a multitude of service providers. For instance, if you’re looking for food delivery, Aero collates all options from the likes of Faasos, Freshmenu, Box8, and others, giving you a list of all the providers that deliver food to your location without having to open several apps.

The company is doing the same for home services by partnering with UrbanClap and Zimmber. Aero has several categories to choose from, including home maintenance, beauty-related needs, house cleaning and pest control, installation and repairs of appliances, and more. You’ll be able to book services or order food directly from the app, and pay using your card, netbanking, or select cash on delivery.

For now, the app is limited to Bengaluru and Mumbai, and if you reside in either of those cities, you can take a look at what Aero has to offer.