“Alexa, how many times has the UK won nil points?”: Alexa knows everything about Eurovision

All eyes will be on be on Kyiv, Ukraine this weekend as the annual Eurovision song contest takes places on Saturday 13 May. Amazon Alexa is getting in on the singing action with a special Eurovision skill.

• Amazon Echo: What can Alexa do and what services are compatible?

With the skill installed on an Amazon Echo or Echo Dot, Alexa will be able to impress you with its knowledge of the singing contest. The skill has been developed by the European Broadcasting Union’s Technology and Innovation and Media departments. Only users in the UK, Germany, Austria and America can take advantage of the skill

You will be able to ask Alexa who won Eurovision in any year dating back to 1956 when the competition started, or when the UK last won it – cast your minds back to 1997 and Katrina and the Waves. Alexa will also be able to play you any winning song from 2016 back to 1956 if you’re an Amazon Music Unlimited member, as well as a live stream of the contest on Saturday via the BBC.

Simon Fell, Director of Technology and Innovation, said: “The EBU is always at the forefront of innovation and with the growth of voice-controlled devices such as Amazon Echo we wanted to create a tool that provides added value to our flagship co-production. In time we hope to develop the “skill” to allow users to delve even deeper into the Eurovision Song Contest’s rich history.”

Who will win Eurovision 2017? Spotify could know the answer and it’s a surprise

The final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 is being held in Kyiv, Ukraine tomorrow evening – from 8pm BST Saturday 13 May – and, after two thrilling semi-finals shown on the BBC and around Europe in the past week, we now know the 26 finalists who will compete for the ultimate prize.

But who will win?

Bookies are giving Italy the shortest odds on winning, which is surprising perhaps considering the entry includes a dancing gorilla. Eccentric jazz singer Salvador Sobral from Portugal is second favourite to take the crown.

However, Spotify has other ideas. It has created a list of the top 10 songs in this year’s final based on the number of times they have been streamed outside of their originating countries and Italy doesn’t even rate.

Portugal is only ninth on the list.

• “Alexa, how many times has the UK won nil points?”: Alexa knows everything about Eurovision

Instead, Spotify predicts that Austria will win, with young star Nathan Trent singing in similar style to Justin Timberlake, with his performance of Running on Air.

Considering the bookmakers have him at around 250/1, it might well be worth a punt.

Our favourite is actually Croatia’s Jacques Houdek, who sings My Friend partly as a diva, partly as a soprano like Pavarotti. It has to be seen to be believed.

Here though are Spotify’s top 10 songs:

Austria: Nathan Trent – Running on Air
Denmark: Anja Nissen – Where Am I?
Belgium: Blanche – City Lights
Sweden: Robin Bengtsson – I Can’t Go On
Australia: Isaiah – Don’t Come Easy
Poland: Kasia Moś – Flashlight
Norway: JOWST – Grab The Moment
Bulgaria: Kristian Kristov – Beautiful Mess
Portugal: Salvador Sobral – Amar Pelos Dois
Azerbaijan: Dihaj – Skeletons

If you have Spotify account, you can listen to the Eurovision 2017 playlist here.

Ads are coming to Amazon Echo skills

If the Beauty and the Beast and Burger King debacles were anything to go by, owners of smart speakers like the Google Home aren’t big fans of ads. But that won’t stop marketing companies like VoiceLabs from trying to make them happen. The voice analytics company has announced a new platform called Sponsored Messages, which will let developers monetize their Amazon Echo skills by inserting ads at the start and end of conversations.

VoiceLabs says Sponsored Messages are between 6 and 15 seconds long and are positioned at the beginning and end of interactions in order to “lead a consumer into an experience or converse with the consumer as they exit.”

An example provided to CNET by VoiceLabs CEO Adam Marchick suggests a developer of a sports podcast skill may decide to partner with ESPN, one of the early Sponsored Messages partners. Upon exiting the skill, an ad may “Thanks for listening, and thanks to ESPN for supporting us.” Four of five uses later, the message may change to notify the user of an upcoming basketball game and ask if they would like to be reminded when to tune in.

Currently, Amazon has guidelines that dictate how and when a developer can integrate ads. They can only appear in streaming music, radio or flash briefing skills and they can’t use Alexa’s voice to say them. For now, the majority of the Echo’s 13,000+ skills are unable to support Sponsored Messages.

The platform already has support from ESPN and Wendy’s, as well as Alexa developers Federated Media, XAPPmedia, TWiT.tv, Appbly. They’ve been testing ads over the past few months and have reportedly seen positive engagement. VoiceLabs says interactive ads are now in production and will be released “in a timely fashion,” based on upcoming events and promotions.

Via: CNET

Source: VoiceLabs

The Morning After: Friday, May 12th 2017

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

Welcome to the end of the week. Microsoft’s second day of its annual conference was a more interesting one.It’s trying to bridge your PC and phone, and we get to see what’s next for Windows 10. Meanwhile, a Russian blogger was given a suspended jail sentence for playing Pokémon Go in a church. We also unveil The Engadget Experience, an event coming this November, aimed at exploring a new creative revolution, involving virtual reality, augmented reality and everything in between.

More new features than the last big update.Windows 10’s next Creators Update arrives this fall

Microsoft just rolled out a big update for Windows 10, but there’s another one on the way later this year. Read on to find out more details, but we’re expecting to see the debut of Fluent Design System (aka Project Neon) and a OneDrive Files On-Demand setup that blurs the line between cloud and local storage. There’s also Microsoft Graph and, oh yeah, Linux in the Windows Store.

A timeline of everything you’ve done on your PC, with wireless copy and paste thrown in.Microsoft Graph bridges the gap between Windows and your phone

Microsoft’s push into being the connective glue between all of your devices is realized in Graph. The aim is to make all things Microsoft work seamlessly, whether you’re on an iPhone, an Android device or a Windows PC. Timeline will keep a record of everything you’ve done on your PC, whether that involves apps, files or websites. Clipboard will let you copy and paste from PC to your smartphone keyboard, while Cortana will offer up suggestions when you log off your PC and unlock your phone.

Welcome to Fluent Design SystemMicrosoft’s five design rules that will push Windows ‘beyond mere rectangles’

As Microsoft gets ready to stretch across devices and beyond screens, it’s nudging software developers to think in new ways. To that end, it has established a set of rules for its new Fluent Design System that will help overhaul the old flat-rectangle interface we’ve seen before. So far, it’s mostly concept art, but depth, material, light, scale and motion are all critical to prepare for a day when these objects are floating in an augmented reality environment.

More motion controlMicrosoft reveals its first Windows Mixed Reality Controllers

If we’re going to navigate through Windows in VR/AR/MR environments, we’ll probably need more than a mouse and keyboard. Enter these new Mixed Reality controllers that use inside-out tracking and support headsets from various PC manufacturers. We don’t have a retail price yet, but Acer will bundle them with its VR headset for an additional $100 on top of the standard $299 price.

We’re giving away $500,000 to foster art and technology.Welcome to The Engadget Experience

With technologies such as augmented reality, virtual reality and artificial intelligence finally reaching the mainstream, we’re on the cusp of a creative revolution. New mediums have given birth to a new class of artists, entertainers, filmmakers and musicians, limited only by their access to and understanding of technology. Despite this explosion in creative possibilities, however, artists and technologists often exist in distinct, isolated worlds.

During The Engadget Experience on November 16th in Los Angeles, we’ll attempt to bridge the gap between these often disparate worlds through a series of talks, interviews, screenings and installations. We’ve also gathered a small committee of technology and art tastemakers to award five grants of up to $100,000 a piece toward the production of ongoing or original works addressing the theme of alternate realities. Read more about it here.

There are plenty of choices from brands like Misfit, Skagen and Fossil’s own.Fossil hopes you’ll like one of its 300 smartwatches

Fossil wants to offer consumers more smartwatch choices since not everyone likes the same style of watch. Pictured above, is Skagen’s Hagen Connected Steel-Mesh, a $220 hybrid smartwatch with a traditional design and features such as activity tracking, sleep monitoring and support for phone notifications. Fossil’s hybrid pieces have another thing in common: they come with a standard, replaceable coin-cell battery. Essentially, you just have to worry about downloading the companion app to keep track of your data.

Useful or creepy?The ‘Lighthouse’ uses AI to keep an eye on who is doing what at all times

This security camera moves beyond the rest by integrating 3D vision developed for self-driving cars and an Intelligence AI service. That way, instead of just recording and watching for motion, it can recognize all of the people and pets in your household, to keep track of their activities when you’re not home. For example, you can set it up to notice if the dog walker shows up on time and it will identify them using facial recognition. All of this data is apparently guarded with encryption and deleted after 30 days. If you’re interested in becoming your own big brother, preorders are available starting at $399.

But wait, there’s more…

• Microsoft will offer three flavors of Linux in the Windows Store
• Russian blogger found guilty of playing ‘Pokémon Go’ in church
• Apple helps you crush the ‘gram with ‘How to shoot on iPhone 7’ videos
• NASA’s mission to Mars includes a year-long stay on the moon
• Trump signs executive order for sweeping review of US cybersecurity

The Morning After is a new daily newsletter from Engadget designed to help you fight off FOMO. Who knows what you’ll miss if you don’t subscribe.

AI-equipped Apple Watch can detect the signs of a stroke

The Apple Watch may become a useful tool in detecting an abnormal heartbeat, according to a study by heart rate app-maker Cardiogram and the UCSF Health lab. They determined that the wearable, when paired with neural network algorithms, is 97 percent accurate in detecting paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common type of heart rhythm problem. With further work, the Watch and other wearables might help prevent strokes in susceptible patients.

Apple has been pitching the Watch with ResearchKit to doctors and scientists as a serious health tool. Cardiogram initiated the research last year to figure out whether it could detect the signs of a stroke, a quarter of which are caused by irregular heartbeats.

The study drew 6,158 Apple Watch users via the Cardiogram app — most had normal EKG readings, but 200 had an existing AF condition that made their hearts beat erratically. Engineers used those subjects to train a deep learning system to discern patients with arrhythmia versus those with normal heartbeats.

They then tested the system on 51 patients scheduled for a procedure to restore normal heart rhythms. All used an Apple Watch and 12-lead ECG prior to and after the procedure. The AI algorithm and Apple Watch were able to identify AF with 97 percent accuracy and 98 percent sensitivity, according to the study.

The research holds a lot of promise, especially since the algorithm is just an early version and could easily be made more accurate. Two-thirds of strokes can be prevented with cheap drugs, but the onset of one is difficult to detect — so doctors could save the lives of susceptible patients with just an off-the-shelf wearable.

The team plans to tweak the algorithm and validate it against “gold standard” EKG tests. It will then incorporate it into the Cardiogram app, and “investigate the ability to detect health conditions beyond atrial fibrillation,” Cardiogram says. With that test a success, it could also push more hospitals and research groups onto ResearchKit and other wearables for patient monitoring and research.

Via: Techcrunch

Source: Cardiogram

U.S. Prosecutors to Investigate Uber’s Alleged Theft of Waymo’s Self-Driving Trade Secrets

A U.S. judge presiding over Waymo’s trade-secrets theft lawsuit against Uber has asked federal prosecutors to investigate the claims in the case, it emerged on Thursday (via Bloomberg).

U.S. district judge William Alsup also partially granted Waymo’s bid for an injunction against Uber’s self-driving efforts, and rejected Uber’s arguments that the trade secret allegations should proceed in private.

Google’s self-driving Waymo car division originally filed the lawsuit against Uber in February, accusing the company of stealing its self-driving intellectual property.

Specifically, former Google employee Anthony Levandowski is accused of stealing 14,000 confidential files that included data on Waymo’s laser-based radar (LiDAR) system, which the company called “one of the most powerful parts” of its self-driving technology.

In referring the case to the U.S. Department of Justice, Judge Alsup said that in the absence of “smoking gun” proof of wrongdoing by Uber, he was not taking a position on whether or not charges are warranted, but noted there was “ample evidence” that Levandowski had breached his duty of loyalty to Waymo.

Uber declined to comment on the referral to prosecutors, while Levandowski has already recused himself from LiDAR-related work while the case is ongoing, but the news is yet another setback for the ride-hailing service as it attempts to revive its tarnished image following multiple controversies over recent months.

The Department of Justice is already investigating the company over its use of “secret” software that allowed its drivers to operate in areas where Uber was banned or restricted. The so-called “greyball” software is said to have allowed the company to identify undercover officials and block them from booking rides, in order to prevent them from proving that Uber was operating illegally.

Last month it emerged that Apple CEO Tim Cook threatened to pull Uber’s app from the App Store in early 2015 after discovering that it was secretly “fingerprinting” iPhones that used the app. Uber said it used the identification method to prevent fraud, despite knowing the tactic is a clear violation of Apple’s app privacy guidelines.

Tags: Uber, Waymo
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Apple Awards Corning First Advanced Manufacturing Fund Investment

Apple today announced that Corning, the makers of Gorilla Glass, will be the first major benefactor of its $1 billion Advanced Manufacturing Fund, which was announced by Apple CEO Tim Cook earlier this month.

Corning is a long-time Apple Supplier, and its Gorilla Glass products have been used in the iPhone and the iPad for several years. Corning Incorporated will receive $200 million from Apple’s new fund, which aims to foster innovation among American manufacturers and lead to more U.S. jobs. The investment will support Corning’s research and development, capital equipment needs and state-of-the-art glass processing, according to Apple’s press release.

“Corning is a great example of a supplier that has continued to innovate and they are one of Apple’s long-standing suppliers,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer. “This partnership started 10 years ago with the very first iPhone, and today every customer that buys an iPhone or iPad anywhere in the world touches glass that was developed in America. We’re extremely proud of our collaboration over the years and we are investing further with Corning who has such a rich legacy of innovative manufacturing practices.”

Apple said Corning’s 65-year-old Harrodsburg facility in Kentucky has been integral to the 10-year collaboration between the two companies and will be the focus of its investment.

“Corning’s longstanding relationship with Apple has not only led to significant glass innovations that have enabled new capabilities for consumers, it has also helped create nearly 1,000 American jobs and allowed us to continue growing and expanding in the US,” said Wendell P. Weeks, Corning’s chairman, chief executive officer and president. “This investment will ensure our plant in Harrodsburg remains a global center of excellence for glass technology.”

Since the founding of Gorilla Glass in 2007, the partnership has created and sustained nearly 1,000 U.S. jobs across Corning’s R&D, manufacturing and commercial functions, according to Apple, including over 400 in Harrodsburg. Corning is said to have procured enough renewable energy to cover all of its Apple manufacturing in the U.S.

Tags: Corning, Gorilla Glass, Advanced Manufacturing Fund
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Lighthouse home security camera intelligently recognises family members and pets

Smart home security cameras are nothing new, they’re able to detect motion inside or outside your home and send you a notification. The new Lighthouse security wants to take that further by intelligently recognising different people and even pets, using 3D-sensing technology.

• Nest Cam Outdoor review

The project has been backed by Android co-founder Andy Rubin, so it really does mean business. You can set up commands to send to the camera, such as asking it to let you know when the kids get home from school. The camera will then recognise the kids when they walk through the door – it uses facial recognition to store images of each family member – and send you an image as proof.

To set up these kind of commands is simple too, as the Lighthouse camera can understand natural language. It means you can literally say “tell me when the kids are home from school”, and it will understand.

The Lighthouse camera can even identify pets, so you can ask the companion app to let you know if the dog went outside while you were away, and you’ll get all dog-related activity, specifically near the door, for the day.

And if the camera detects movement from an unidentified person, it will let you know through the app and gives you quick-access options to sound a siren, call the police or to talk through the camera to politely tell the intruder to go away.

• Logitech Circle review: The portable home security camera
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As with some other home security cameras, you can also talk through the Lighthouse camera using the app. It will even recognise hand gestures, so your kids could wave to it to get your attention, you’ll get a notification on the app and then you can speak to them to ask them how their day was. Of course, this is only really useful if you’re away from the home, and not just sitting in the other room.

Lighthouse

Lighthouse says all camera footage and data stored on the camera is encrypted, and footage is automatically deleted after 30 days.

You can now pre-order the Lighthouse security camera in the US for $399 with a year of Lighthouse Intelligence software, but you can increase this to four years for $499 or five years for $599. Once your subscription has run out, you can pay $10/month to keep it running.

Harley-Davidson to keep making electric motorbikes after LiveWire

World renowned motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson is still to deliver a consumer edition of its LiveWire electric bike – which we first rode two years ago – yet it is confident enough in the concept that it will develop further all-electric vehicles down the line.

Harley-Davidson has revealed that it will release 100 new motorcycles in the next 10 years and an entire range of electric bikes will be included.

Speaking to Drive, Bill Davidson, vice president of the Harley-Davidson Museum also said that plans for a full release for the LiveWire are progressing nicely: “We’re excited about our future. We actually showed a prototype of the electric LiveWire and that project is alive and well,” he explained.

“We don’t know yet when we’re going to introduce it but it is progressing well and we will eventually introduce it.”

The VP is the great grandson of company founder William A Davidson.

The Harley-Davidson LiveWire is, in almost every sense, every bit the growling bike the company is synonymous with. Apart from the sound.

To counteract the fact that electric vehicles make little noise when running – a no-no for most motorbikers let alone Harley-Davidson fans – the company has added a housing that creates a resonance when in operation. That, we discovered in our ride test in 2015, makes the bike sound like a jet engine. Lovely.

Price and exact release date for the LiveWire are still to be determined.

Could a Nintendo Switch Mini be in the works?

The Nintendo Switch has received universal acclaim since its release in March, and even sold more consoles in its first month than it did Wii Us in a year. But even with its success, and the fact it combines portable and home gaming into one machine, Citigroup analysts reckon Nintendo will release a smaller version of the console in 2019.

• Nintendo Switch: Price, specs and everything you need to know
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The analysts say that the biggest reason for developing a smaller handheld version of the Switch would be to accommodate to smaller children, who might currently struggle with the size and weight of the regular Switch console.

Writing in an official report, the Citigroup analysts said: “Although the Nintendo Switch can be used as a handheld device, we think smaller children could struggle to use it comfortably in that format due to its size and weight”.

“Accordingly, we think Nintendo will launch a lighter, dedicated handheld version of the Switch, possibly to be called the Switch Mini”.

Nintendo already offers several handheld consoles, including the 2DS, 3DS, 3DS XL and recently released 2DS XL, so you may be wondering why the Japanese gaming giant would need another. It’s possible that the DS series of handheld consoles may eventually come to an end.

• Nintendo 2DS XL vs 2DS vs 3DS vs 3DS XL: What’s the difference?
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If the only way of Nintendo releasing a new model is to launch a bigger version of an existing console, then ideas are clearly coming to a standstill. A handheld version of the Switch may reignite sales and offer Nintendo a new avenue to go down.

Citigroup analysts haven’t said how much they think a Switch Mini would sell for, but they think if such a console did exist, it would sell 6.7 million units in its first 12 months through March 2019. They also predict the regular Switch would have sold 25.7 million units by the same time.