You can fix the HTC Vive’s sub-par headstrap on June 6th

Despite hitting the market before the Oculus Rift with motion control, room-scale virtual reality support and more connectivity options, the HTC Vive has always trailed behind Facebook’s VR headset in one incredibly important regard: comfort. The Vive’s basic headstrap works fine, but compared to the more robust mounts on the Rift and PlayStation VR headsets, it’s objectively inferior. It’s a good thing, then, that the company’s new Deluxe Audio Strap is almost ready for consumers — HTC says Vive owners will be able to nab the more ergonomic head-mount accessory on June 6th.

Think of the Deluxe Audio Strap as a mix between the Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR headset’s mounting equipment. It has a more ergonomic cradle for the user’s head and an easy-adjustment sizing dial to fit different sized heads. True to its name, it also includes integrated headphones. The $100 add-on is a nice quality-of-life enhancement for individual users, but Vive seems to be targeting business users — including the strap with all Vive Business Edition headsets. That makes sense — the new strap is a lot easier to adjust for multiple users in a VR arcade.

Source: Vive

NYPD faces lawsuit for withholding info on facial recognition

A think tank is suing the NYPD over its failure to reveal details about its secret facial recognition program. Georgetown University’s Center on Privacy and Technology (CPT) alleges that the department hasn’t complied with New York state’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) by forking over information on the system, which the department started using to investigate crimes in 2011. When groups submitted FOIL requests for training manuals and documentation, the NYPD insisted they didn’t have any, so CPT is taking the department to court.

The NYPD did share one document, a Chief of Detectives memo that instructs officers on protocol to submit a request for a facial recognition search. It’s confirmation the program exists, but not how it’s used, how it was built and what privacy protections are in place for the database of citizens’ faces. Which is unsettling considering that the unit built around the facial identification program had conducted over 8,500 facial recognition investigations leading to 2,000 arrests from 2011 until last year, a former NYPD official told the NY Daily News. The department didn’t deny that purchase invoices for the program exist, but claimed they couldn’t be requested by FOIL, which is another claim CPT is debating in its lawsuit.

New York City isn’t the only place in the state investing in more face-screening tech. The NY DMV’s facial recognition system was responsible for over 100 arrests since refining it in January 2016, and Governor Cuomo announced last October that he wanted to expand it to critical locations by covering bridges, tunnels and airports in cameras and sensors. Ideally, this will help eyeball terrorists, but even facial recognition databases used by our top agencies are far from foolproof: The FBI’s system returns false positives 15 percent of the time, more frequently with women and minorities.

Source: Vocativ

The Strong Museum’s latest addition digs deep into gaming history

Video games are a unique, nascent art form and it makes sense to preserve them. While efforts by the Internet Archive have been underway for a while, it hasn’t been a priority for the gaming industry to archive their own products. Most archival projects happen thanks to the unpaid efforts of super fans bent on saving their beloved gaming experiences. Today, though, The Strong Museum, also known as the National Museum of Play, announced that Scott Adams, the developer behind 1978’s text adventure game Adventureland, has donated a ton of materials from his long career in the industry.

Adams’ donation includes some of the code for the earliest commercially available computer games, along with printed source code, promotional materials, photographs, magazines, comic books and other documentation from Adventure International, the company Adam’s co-funded. The materials include more than 130 video games, with the earliest known packaged copies of early text-based games like Adventure 1: Adventureland and Adventure 2: Pirate’s Adventure, not to mention printouts of tic-tac-toe and checkers computer games Adams wrote in high school around 1970.

“We were astonished to find in this donation some of the earliest packaged computer games—Adventureland and Pirate’s Adventure cassette tapes Adams placed in baby bottle liners and sealed by stapling a bi-fold business card to the top, said Jeremy Saucier, assistant director for the International Center for the History of Electronic Games. “These simple packages helped transform computer games into products while bringing text-based adventure games, which previously lived on mainframe computers, into the home for the very first time.”

You won’t be able to play these games in a web browser like the Internet Archive’s gaming preservation projects, but that’s alright. Once these early materials are cataloged and made available to researchers, some will show up for viewing at the organization’s 5,000-square-foot touring eGameRevolution exhibit on the history and evolution of electronic gaming.

Australian cops broke data law while checking a journalist’s calls

There’s a good reason why privacy and civil rights advocates object to far-reaching data collection laws: even if most police and spies are well-meaning, it’s all too easy for others to abuse their power or make mistakes. And the Australian Federal Police just provided a good example of this problem. The law enforcement agency has admitted that it violated Australia’s Telecommunications Interception Act by accessing the data of an unnamed journalist without the necessary special warrant. Officials say the spying was due to “human error” and have mended their ways (including deleting their copy of the data), but this kind of faux pas wouldn’t have even been possible if it weren’t for the existence of the TIA.

The law, which came into effect October 2015, requires that telecoms store call records, location data, internet addresses and other info for 2 years. That’s bad enough by itself, but police don’t even need a warrant for that info in most cases. The journalist-oriented warrant is the exception, and it’s clear that police didn’t have enough measures in place to protect the press from that unfettered data access.

There’s a good chance that the police are being honest when they say there wasn’t “ill will, malice, or bad indent” in scooping up the journalist’s info. The media member wasn’t even being targeted by the investigation at hand, the AFP says. However, that won’t do much to reassure privacy-minded Australians. After all, you’re only learning about this because the police felt compelled to self-report. What if an unscrupulous investigator decides to “cheat” in a case by getting a journalist’s info? What if someone decides to run a smear campaign against a reporter? Even if the oversight was flawless, the very existence of data collection makes it difficult to completely avoid misuse.

Via: ZDNet, TechDirt

Source: AFP (1), (2)

Surface Laptop vs. the competition: Back to basics

Microsoft finally built a real laptop — not a tablet with a keyboard, or a machine with a detachable display. Just a solid traditional laptop, though one with an incredibly slim build, smooth touch and the stripped down Windows 10 S along for the ride. But, as a more straightforward machine, the Surface Laptop goes directly against competing devices from the likes of HP, Dell and Apple. With the Surface and the current MacBook Air both starting at $999, we’ve lined up the specs of some leading 13-inch machines to see what they can offer you for a grand and more.

Microsoft Surface Laptop
Apple MacBook Air 13-inch
Dell XPS 13
HP Spectre 13.3
Price
$999 / $1,299 / $1,599 / $2,199
$999 / $1,199
$800 / $1,000 / $1,150 / $1,300 / $1,400 / $1,650 / $1,850
$1,100 / $1,170
Dimensions
12.13 x 8.79 x 0.57 inches (308.1 x 223.27 x 14.48 mm)
12.8 x 8.94 x 0.68 inches (325 x 227 x 17 mm)
11.98 x 7.88 x 0.33 inches (304 x 235 x 15 mm)
12.8 x 9.03 x 0.41 inches (325.12 x 229.36 x 10.41 mm)
Weight
2.76 pounds (1.25 kg)
2.96 pounds (1.35 kg)
2.7 (non-touch) or 2.9 (touch) pounds (1.2 or 1.29 kg)
2.45 pounds (1.11 kg)
OS
Windows 10 S
MacOS Sierra
Windows 10
Windows 10
Display
13.5-inch PixelSense touchscreen
13.3-inch LED
13.3-inch InfinityEdge touch or non-touch
13.3-inch BrightView LED / IPS LED
Resolution
2,256 x 1,504 (201 ppi)
1,440 x 900 (127.68 ppi)
1,920 x 1,080 (166 ppi) / 3,200 x 1,800 (276 ppi)
1,920 x 1,080 (166 ppi)
Processor
Intel Core i5 / Core i7
Intel Core i5 (1.6 GHz)
Intel Core i3 (2.4 GHz) / Core i5 (3.1 GHz) / Core i7 (3.5 GHz)
Intel Core i5 (2.5 GHz) / Core i7 (2.7 GHz)
Memory
4 / 8 / 16 GB
8 GB
4 / 8 / 16 GB
8 GB
Graphics
Intel HD Graphics 620 / Iris Plus Graphics 640
Intel HD Graphics 6000
Intel HD Graphics 620
Intel HD Graphics 620
Storage
128 / 256 / 512 GB
128 / 256 GB
128 / 256 / 512 GB
256 GB
Ports
USB 3.0, Mini DisplayPort, Surface Connect
USB 3.0 (x2), Thunderbolt 2, SD card reader
USB 3.0 (x2), Thunderbolt 3, SD card reader
USB Type-C (x3)
Wireless
802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.0
802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.0
802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.1
802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.0
Battery
14.5 hours
54 WHr, 12 hours
60 WHr, 18 hours
38 WHr, 9.75 hours

* Specs listed are for default configurations and do not include upgrade options available at checkout.

iPhone sales continue their slow and steady slide

Apple just released earnings details for the last quarter, and the company couldn’t quite keep iPhone sales growing for the second quarter in a row. The company sold 50.8 million iPhones in the last quarter, down a scant one percent from the 51.2 million it sold a year ago. It’s worth remembering that last year marked the first quarter where iPhone sales didn’t grow year-over-year, so this decline isn’t exactly a surprise. The iPhone 7 briefly managed to turn things around last quarter, but we’re now back to seeing sales decline, albeit very slightly.

Despite the iPhone slide, Apple’s revenue increased to $52.9 billion on the quarter, up five percent year-over-year. Some of that could be due to the Mac — Apple sold 4.2 million Macs in the quarter, a four percent increase over a year ago. That marks the second consecutive quarter of Mac growth, despite the grumbling coming from both fans and press about the lack of updates Apple’s computers have received in recent years.

Apple’s third major product category, the iPad, once again failed to turn around sales that have slumped for more than three years now. The company sold 8.9 billion tablets, down nine percent from the 10.25 million it sold a year ago. But Apple’s services business keeps growing — revenues of $7.04 billion marked an 18 percent increase year-over-year. And the “other products” business, which includes the Apple Watch and Apple TV, jumped up a whopping 31 percent. Perhaps Apple’s wearable is doing better than people give it credit for.

But things are likely not going to get any easier on the iPhone front for Apple any time soon. The company’s biggest rival Samsung just launched the Galaxy S8, a phone that gives Samsung a significant edge over what Apple currently offers. Naturally, loyal Apple fans aren’t going to be abandoning the ecosystem any time soon (and that growing services revenue is good evidence of their loyalty), but Samsung now likely has until September at least to press its advantage.

CEO Tim Cook will surely address all of this and more on Apple’s earnings call, which starts at 5PM ET. We’ll update this post with anything we hear.

Source: Apple

Apple Reports 2Q 2017 Results: $11B Profit on $52.9B Revenue, 50.8M iPhones

Apple today announced financial results for the second fiscal quarter of 2017, which corresponds to the first calendar quarter of the year. For the quarter, Apple posted revenue of $52.9 billion and net quarterly profit of $11.0 billion, or $2.10 per diluted share, compared to revenue of $50.6 billion and net quarterly profit of $10.5 billion, or $1.90 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.

Gross margin for the quarter was 38.9 percent compared to 39.4 percent in the year-ago quarter, with international sales accounting for 65 percent of revenue. Apple also declared an increased quarterly dividend payment of $0.63 per share, up from $0.57. The dividend is payable on May 18 to shareholders of record as of May 15.

In addition to the increase in the dividend payment, Apple says it will once again expand its share repurchase authorization by an additional $50 billion and the company says it expects to spend a total $300 billion in cash under its overall capital return program by the end of March 2019.

Apple sold 50.8 million iPhones during the quarter, down slightly from 51.1 million a year earlier, while Mac sales rose slightly to 4.20 million units from 4.03 million units in the year-ago quarter. iPad sales continued to decline, falling to 8.92 million from 10.25 million.

“We are proud to report a strong March quarter, with revenue growth accelerating from the December quarter and continued robust demand for iPhone 7 Plus,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’ve seen great customer response to both models of the new iPhone 7 (PRODUCT)RED Special Edition and we’re thrilled with the strong momentum of our Services business, with our highest revenue ever for a 13-week quarter. Looking ahead, we are excited to welcome attendees from around the world to our annual Worldwide Developers Conference next month in San Jose.”

Apple’s guidance for the third quarter of fiscal 2017 includes expected revenue of $43.5–45.5 billion and gross margin between 37.5 and 38.5 percent.

Apple will provide live streaming of its fiscal Q2 2017 financial results conference call at 2:00 PM Pacific, and MacRumors will update this story with coverage of the conference call highlights.

Conference call starts at 2:00 PM Pacific – No need to refresh

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Teachers and students worldwide will soon get Microsoft’s Office 365 suite for free

Why it matters to you

Students and educators will soon be able to grab the Office suite for free, as Microsoft continues its attempt to bring Windows 10 to classrooms around the world.

On May 2, Microsoft hosted an education-focused event showcasing how Windows 10 can be used to great effect in the classroom. During the presentation, the company announced that Office 365 for Education will be offered to students and teachers at schools all over the world for free.

The Office suite has a number of different applications in an educational environment. Word has long been the standard for writing up and submitting essays, the creation of PowerPoint presentations has become a common homework assignment in recent years, and note-taking tool OneNote offers all kinds of advantages to learners.

The full Office suite will be coming to the Windows Store, making it available to systems running Windows 10 S, which was officially unveiled at today’s event.

Microsoft Teams is being outfitted with some useful features aimed at schools. The service will act as a link between teachers and students, allowing educators to interact with their classes either one-on-one or as a group, and empowering learners to collaborate with one another on projects.

As well as text chat, Teams offers support for video calling. With a view to maintaining a scholarly sense of decorum, Microsoft has implemented a system that allows administrators to mute or delete messages that don’t adhere to proper etiquette.

Students can access documents like assignments and quizzes from Teams, and their teachers can check up on the progress they’re making on their homework and other ongoing projects.

Teachers can also use Teams in conjunction with other programs in the Office suite to give their students freedom to review learning materials on their own time. The principal of Bear Creek Middle School in Fairburn, Georgia appeared on stage to demonstrate how his institution has integrated Office 365 for Education into its teaching practices.

A map appeared on screen, and notes made over the course of a lesson appeared on it in the order that they were added. This functionality allows students to review the lesson as it plays out, rather than simply working from notes as they appeared at the end of the session.

Microsoft is making a serious play for the education sector, and offering up the Office suite for free will be a very tempting proposition for many schools. The company will make these tools available to educators over the summer, so that they’re ready to be used when the new school year gets underway.

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

Media Clouds

Do you want save your MP3 files and videos from your cloud to play offline? Media Clouds is best choice for you.

Available on:

iOS

Fontz

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but adding a few extra never hurt anyone. Add captions, quotes, and other text with Fontz.

Available on:

iOS

Device Space

Device Space is a utility app to view used, free, and total storage space for your device disk drive. It also provides battery level and device information like iOS version, device uptime, and more.

Available on:

iOS

PhotoViva

Add effects and a feeling of expressive art to your photos. You easily apply photo brushes to turn your photos into paintings.

Available on:

iOS

Weby

This app lets you record your touches and experiences while you are browsing the web. Just start your search within Weby and record what you see.

Available on:

iOS

Hide it Pro

Tired of people snooping in your phone, looking at all your personal photos and videos? With Hide it Pro you can securely shield your content from prying eyes.

Available on:

iOS

Facebook Messenger Instant Games update has bots, turn-based gameplay

Why it matters to you

If you enjoy gaming with your friends within Facebook Messenger, you’ll enjoy the slew of new features soon making their way to the service.

Facebook unveiled a suite of new features coming to Messenger at its annual F8 conference last month as part of the next evolution of its chat platform, Messenger 2.0. Among them was the expansion of Instant Games — social gaming experiences that take place directly within chat.

On Tuesday, Facebook announced it had begun rolling out the new-and-improved Instant Games alongside a new version of Zynga’s Words With Friends made specifically for the service.

Although Instant Games are meant to be played in the context of a group or private conversation, they pack the same kinds of features that users would expect from traditional games, and now benefit from tight integration with Messenger’s new Bots.

Bots are automated, AI-powered companions that respond to user requests with intelligently sourced suggestions. In the case of Instant Games, Bots help facilitate the action by reminding players when it’s time to make the next move, and presenting leaderboard updates to encourage a little healthy competition.

According to Facebook, developers are free to build bots to enhance their games in new and inventive ways, so it’ll be interesting to see how they take to it.

Facebook says turn-based games were its most requested feature, and so it comes as little surprise that Words With Friends has joined the party. Zynga’s popular title arrives on Messenger with the ability to easily add players directly from their friends list, and uses a smaller board with fewer tiles for faster gameplay. As players make moves within the conversation, it’s now easier than ever before to take your opponent to task over whether or not their play was a legitimate word in the English language.

Zynga’s latest release comes a little over a week after the company debuted GIFs Against Friends on iMessage.

There are currently 50 titles available as Instant Games, according to Facebook, though not all of them are compatible with all devices. The company says more games are slated to land nearly every week, including Blackstorm’s fantasy shooter EverWing and Miniclip’s 8 Ball Pool. The Instant Games update should reach iOS and Android users over the coming days.