Google gets closer to building its own city in San Jose

Google has been making major development moves in downtown San Jose and yesterday the City Council agreed to negotiate a sale of 16 parcels of land owned by the city. The deal has been strongly supported by San Jose’s mayor and vice mayor but the city’s residents have been a bit more hesitant.

The plan, which is separate from Google’s Mountain View campus development, has been to turn the Diridon Station area of San Jose into a massive transit hub, complete with a Google village and potentially 20,000 added jobs. If the project is given full approval, the tech giant would build between 6-8 million square feet of office space and up to 3,000 units of housing. The city, already an Amtrak and Caltrain hub, also has plans for a high-speed rail line and BART trains.

Google and its partners have been buying up property all over the area for months. Two associated property investor groups have already shelled out a combined $130 million on real estate in the area.

While this project doesn’t address the affordable housing issue created by tech companies in the Bay area, the expanded public transportation could connect Silicon Valley to places with cheaper housing. But residents of San Jose want to make sure the deal with Google doesn’t displace them and have urged City Council and the mayor to make sure the project comes with safeguards against that possibility.

The project is currently in the land-buying stage and no development plans have been approved just yet. But Google is pursuing this venture with full force and it looks like San Jose governing bodies are behind them.

Source: The Mercury News

Pinterest Lens makes fab outfits from clothes you already own

Putting outfits together is fun, but it could also be irritating to do every single day. Something like Cher’s virtual wardrobe in Clueless could help — or Pinterest Lens, which the social network has just upgraded to be a much better stylist. The company says it made major improvements to give its image recognition tool the capability to make outfits based on specific pieces of clothing or accessories you already own. If you have a denim jacket that you don’t know what to do with, for instance, you can upload a picture and look at the sample OOTDs Lens shows you. The tool can also recommend new clothes to buy based on what you usually wear.

Pinterest has given Lens a general overhaul, as well. It has a brand new user interface and new features, including the capability to zoom in and out of objects and tap to focus when taking pictures. Plus, it’s much easier to upload existing images in your gallery now that can browse them at the bottom of the Lens interface. All these features will start rolling out today, so keep an eye out for updates if you need help on how to wear that asymmetrical Rei Kawakubo piece or just need some fashion inspiration.

Source: Pinterest

Entrepreneurial Teenagers Earning Upwards of $20K Over Their Summer Breaks to Fix Broken iPhones

A new report by The Wall Street Journal this week has taken a look into entrepreneurial teenagers and the lucrative business of summertime iPhone repairs. One 16-year-old in Nantucket, Massachusetts interviewed for the article, Grayson Shaw, cited a nearly $24,000 income for iPhone repairs made in the summer of 2016, when he fixed as many as nine iPhones every day.

Shaw has been repairing iPhones since he was 12, and this summer plans to set up his small business at a table outside of a local ice cream parlor. His repairs include fixing broken screens, microphones, and various other parts of both iPhones and iPads. Shaw’s rates include a $189.99 repair cost to fix a broken screen on an iPhone 7 Plus.

Image of Joseph Kokenge taken by Sarah Desforges via WSJ

On Nantucket, Mr. Shaw is the “go-to guy,” says Peter Bordes, executive chairman of a software company, oneQube, who got his phone fixed by Mr. Shaw last summer after a tip from a friend’s teenage daughter.

“She said go to this place, and you’ll find him in this store,” Mr. Bordes says. “It’s like a mafia; they know who to go to.” The repair, he says, was “flawless.”

In Lafayette, Louisiana 18-year-old Joseph Kokenge quit his job at a local bowling alley, which his father manages, after discovering how much money he could make fixing broken iPhones. He began learning how to repair Apple’s smartphones watching his father repair a cracked iPhone 3GS, and then browsed YouTube how-to videos for more information.

On average, Kokenge has charged $50 to fix the screens of iPhone 5 devices, and $200 for an iPhone 7 Plus, and he works on his repairs at a local coffee shop.

When a friend asked if his father could fix an iPhone 5, the teen watched YouTube how-to videos and repaired it himself. He soon earned a reputation at school, he says: “If a phone was broken, they knew to go to me.”

Word spread and parents, too, approached him. By senior year, he had quit his job at the bowling alley his father manages. “I told him that my time was worth more than $7.50 an hour,” he says. “He was proud that I was making more money on my own.”

Although AppleCare+ significantly reduces the cost of repairs, out-of-warranty repairs for screen damage made directly from Apple currently cost between $129 (iPhone 5 family) and $149 (iPhone 7 Plus). If any other damage is made to the device, the price jumps to between $269 and $349 for the same devices.

Related Roundup: iPhone 7
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Qualcomm Says Its Innovations Are At the Heart of Every iPhone as Battle With Apple Intensifies

Apple this week expanded its lawsuit against Qualcomm, accusing the wireless chipmaker of “double-dipping” by allegedly refusing to sell chips to manufacturers unless they also pay separate royalties and enter licensing agreements at unreasonable rates, according to court documents filed electronically.

Qualcomm has since responded to the amended complaint, claiming that Apple is “trying to distract” from the fact that it has made alleged “misleading statements” about the comparative performance of its Snapdragon X12 modem, used in select iPhone 7 models to enable Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity.

Apple dual sources wireless chips from Qualcomm and Intel for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X12 modem is used in CDMA models, such as those sold by Verizon and Sprint, while Intel’s XMM7360 modem is used in GSM models, such as those sold by AT&T and T-Mobile.

New York-based Cellular Insights last year found Qualcomm’s modem to significantly outperform Intel’s modem in the iPhone 7 Plus, based on simulated testing of LTE performance at different distances from a cellular tower.

Apple, however, publicly stated there is “no discernible difference” in performance between the Qualcomm and Intel modems in any of the models. Apple also threatened Qualcomm not to disclose the truth, according to Don Rosenberg, executive vice president and general counsel of Qualcomm.

Rosenberg said Apple’s bigger misconception is that Qualcomm’s innovations are limited to technology implemented in the cellular modem, when in fact its patented inventions are supposedly “at the heart of every iPhone” and “enable the most important uses and features” of those devices.

An excerpt from Qualcomm’s statement obtained by MacRumors:

Apple says Qualcomm’s innovations are limited to technology implemented in the cellular modem, when Apple knows well that Qualcomm has been the de facto R&D arm of the industry.

Qualcomm’s patented inventions make possible not only connectivity and high-speed data transmission across mobile networks, but also high-precision GPS navigation, app store operations, power management and battery efficiency, mobile video including advanced compression, graphics, camera imaging and facial-recognition technology, audio quality and audio file compression, and much, much more.

Qualcomm’s innovations are at the heart of every iPhone and enable the most important uses and features of those devices. It simply is untrue that Qualcomm is seeking to collect royalties for Apple innovations that have nothing to do with Qualcomm’s technology.

Rosenberg added that Apple is “rarely first to market with any new technology, which shows it is relying heavily on the R&D investments in the most revolutionary technologies by companies like Qualcomm.”

Apple argued that Qualcomm has been unfairly “levying its own tax” on the iPhone’s innovations by charging royalties on a percentage of the entire smartphone’s value, despite supplying just a single component of the device.

An excerpt from Apple’s amended complaint:

As Apple innovates, Qualcomm demands more. Qualcomm had nothing to do with creating the revolutionary Touch ID, the world’s most popular camera, or the Retina display Apple’s customers love, yet Qualcomm wants to be paid as if these (and future) breakthroughs belong to it.

Qualcomm said the per-device royalty that it charges Apple’s contract manufacturers for the right to use its licensed technologies in the iPhone is “less than what Apple charges for a single wall plug.” The only first-party wall plug that Apple sells is a 5W USB Power Adapter for $19 in the United States.

Apple sued Qualcomm in January for $1 billion in alleged unpaid royalty rebates. Qualcomm countersued Apple for breach of contract, encouraging regulatory attacks on its business, and failing to engage in “good faith negotiations” for a license to its wireless patents on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms.

Qualcomm was the exclusive supplier of 3G and LTE modems for iPhones until last year, when Apple began dual sourcing from Intel.

Tags: lawsuit, Qualcomm
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Sega Forever makes Genesis classics free on mobile

We have no shortage of shiny, life-like HD games these days, but if you’d like to revisit older titles from a bygone era, Sega has got your back. The video game company has just officially launched the first wave of the Sega Forever collection with five titles meant to begin “a retro revolution that will transport players back through two decades of console gaming.” Starting today, the 1991 version of Sonic the Hedgehog, fan-favorite RPG Phantasy Star II, classic arcade-style beat ’em up Comix Zone, platformer Kid Chameleon and Greek mythology-themed beat ’em up Altered Beast will be available on Google Play and iTunes as free ad-supported games. If you have an iPhone or an iPad, your games will even come accompanied by iMessage sticker packs.

Sure, Sonic has been out for mobile since 2015, but now you can get its ad-free version for $2. All the other games will also cost you that much, though take note that you can play them offline, save and see your name on the leaderboard even if you play the ad-supported versions. Sega says it plans to add new titles to the collection every two weeks, including official emulations and ported games from all its console eras, so expect to see a lot more than these five in the future.

In fact, the company also recently made Crazy Taxi free-to-play with the option to remove ads for two bucks. It’s unclear why the company didn’t make it one of the launch titles, but we’ll bet it will also be part of the Forever collection. You can access the games on Google Play through the links below — take note that they will go live in Asia first and will start becoming available in Western markets on June 22nd:

• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Phantasy Star II
• Comix Zone
• Kid Chameleon
• Altered Beast

Source: Sega Forever (Facebook), (Twitter), (Instagram)

Queen’s Speech 2017: What it means for UK tech

The General Election has been and gone, but questions remain regarding the suitability of Theresa May as Britain’s premier. Nonetheless, as part of traditional ritual, MPs have once again descended upon the House of Lords for the reading of the Queen’s Speech, where Her Majesty details the formal plan for the current government. Brexit and Britain’s security were the banner announcements, but technology also played a key part, with driverless cars and spaceports the notable inclusions.

Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill

In last year’s Queen’s Speech, the government rammed home the message that Britain will become a leader in autonomous transportation. It’s largely the same this year, with Theresa May outlining the need for car insurance to cover the use of self-driving cars so that “compensation claims continue to be paid quickly, fairly, and easily.” Measures that first appeared in the proposed Vehicle Technology and Aviation Bill earlier this year will now be included in the new Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill.

Under this, UK insurers will need to separately cover when the driver is in manual control and when the car is driving itself. Car owners will also be made liable for accidents if they’ve decided to modify the software on their vehicle or have failed to install important updates.

The bill also reiterates the need for more electric charging and hydrogen points, which includes forcing motorway services and major petrol station operators to build charging spots alongside traditional fuel pumps.

Space Industry Bill

In order to secure the growth of UK’s space industry, Theresa May put forward new legislation that would help Britain in its mission to become the number one place for commercial spaceflight in Europe. The Space Industry Bill features powers that would pave the way for the UK’s first spaceports and facilitate the launch of vertically-launched rockets, space planes and satellites.

The government believes investment in this area will increase its share of the global space economy from 6.5 percent today to 10 percent by 2030. Businesses may be incentivised to invest in UK-based space programs and the availability of private space flights may increase tourism to more remote parts of Britain.

In 2014, the government earmarked eight locations for the first UK spaceport. Six were in Scotland, with Wales and England housing one apiece. Over time, locations were removed, with Newquay, Cornwall now believed to be the ideal candidate.

Data Protection Bill

Plans for new data protection laws were also included in the Queen’s Speech. The proposed Data Protection Bill would deliver on the Conservative manifesto pledge to let young people demand that social networks remove any personal information that they shared before they turned 18. Before the Election, Theresa May said she’d take a tougher stance on Facebook and Twitter as part of her “right to innocence” plan.

Other key government priorities include giving people the “right to be forgotten” when they no longer want a company to retain data on them and allowing police and other authorities to “continue to exchange information quickly and easily with international partners” in order to better tackle terrorism and other major crimes.

“My government will bring forward proposals to ensure that critical national infrastructure is protected to safeguard national security. A commission for countering extremism will be established to support the government in stamping out extremist ideology in all its forms, both across society and on the internet, so it is denied a safe space to spread,” May said.

Brexit may be looming large, but the UK will implement the General Data Protection Regulation, new European data protection rules that will come into force next year. This will allow the UK to share data with other EU member states and internationally after Britain uncouples from the European Union.

The new bill would update and replace the Data Protection Act, which was first introduced in 1998.

Source: Queen’s Speech 2017 (PDF)

Airbus imagines a faster helicopter with wings

Airbus has showed off a new helicopter concept at the Paris Airshow that could give operators everything they want: speed, versatility and economy. The Racer (rapid and cost-effective rotorcraft) features a main rotor like a regular helicopter, but uses pusher propellers to accelerate it forward and a new “box-wing” system for extra lift. As a result, it’ll power along at up to 400 km/h (250 mph) while being able to take off on a dime like a regular chopper.

The Racer is based on Airbus Helicopters’ X3 prototype helicopter, which set a helicopter speed record at 255 knots in level flight in 2013. Like that model, it uses the main rotor for STOL take-off capabilities, but once the propellers start pushing forward, the main rotor slows down and the box wings take on some of the lifting chores. As such, it works a bit like a hybrid gyrocopter, though such aircraft use unpowered main rotors and powered pusher props.

It will improve on the X3 in a few areas. It uses a single shaft (with a gearbox) and twin-engine Safran RTM322 engines, making it easier to maintain. The concept also moves the propellers behind the wings, isolating passengers from noise and vibration — an idea it patented back in 2014.

To further reduce noise and increase speeds, Airbus replaced the rear tail rotor with a simple tail wing. Anti-torque for the main rotor will instead come from the counter-rotating propellers, or “lateral rotors,” as Airbus calls them. The aim is to offer 50 percent more speed than a normal helicopter, with just 25 percent more cost, saving operators over 20 percent per mile, per passenger.

Regular helicopters can normally fly up to around just 160 mph, because at cruising speeds, the advancing main rotor blades have a much higher relative speed than the retreating ones. As a result, the retreating blades can approach a “stalled,” non-flying condition if the speed is too high, while the advancing blades can be buffeted by shock waves as they hit near-supersonic speeds.

The Airbus X3 and Racer get around this by decreasing the main rotor RPM by around 15 percent at high cruising speeds. The pusher props over the thrusting chores, while the wings can handle as much as 80 percent of the lift, helping the next-gen copters fly faster and more economically. “It will pave the way for new time-sensitive services for 2030 and beyond, setting new benchmarks for high-speed helicopter transportation,” said Airbus Helicopters CEO Guillaume Faury in a statement.

Via: Design Boom

Source: Airbus

Former iOS Chief Scott Forstall Discusses Creating the First iPhone

Former iOS chief Scott Forstall gave a rare interview last night at an event at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, where he discussed the birth of the iPhone and his relationship with Steve Jobs.

Speaking to journalist John Markoff after an opening hour with original iPhone engineers Nitin Ganatra, Hugo Fiennes, and Scott Herz, Forstall’s appearance was the first time he had spoken publicly since he was ousted from Apple in October 2012, following the botched launch of Apple Maps.

Scott Forstall (right) speaking to John Markoff
Forstall proved a charismatic storyteller on the night as he discussed his school education and his early career at Steve Jobs’ NeXT, before moving on to his work on the first iPhone at Apple. The former iOS chief spoke with genuine warmth about his time with the company, but stopped short of offering any huge revelations, although the audience was treated to a few more details as well as some humorous episodes along the way.

For example, Forstall claimed that before the iPhone was conceived, Jobs had initially wanted a tablet with capacitative touch and multitouch in order to get one over on someone he “hated” who worked at Microsoft.

“It began because Steve hated this guy at Microsoft. That is the actual origin,” Forstall said, before adding that it wasn’t Bill Gates. After hearing the person boast about Microsoft’s tablet and stylus development, said Forstall, “Steve came in on a Monday, there was a set of expletives and then he said, ‘Let’s show them how it’s really done’.”

Regarding the iPhone, Forstall said the idea for the device was initially born when he and Jobs were eating lunch and they noticed everyone was using their phones. “We hated them,” he said. “No one seemed like it was a pleasurable thing to use a phone, but it’s a nice thing for communication.” The episode prompted Jobs to ask the tablet design team to redouble their efforts to perfect multitouch but to miniaturize it for a device that you could put in your pocket.

Forstall also touched upon the concept of skeuomorphic design, claiming he had “never heard of skeuomorphism” when he was working on iOS and that it sounded “unnatural”.

“When I look at design – when I look at good design – it’s approachable, friendly, you can use it without a manual. It’s fun. We talked a lot about photo-illustrative design. It was infused into the design sense of Apple by Steve Jobs since the original Mac. We used these design philosophies. It doesn’t mean we loved it, or loved every single part of it. We know it worked. How do we know it worked? You just have to watch people use it.”

Elsewhere, Forstall chose to highlight the many emails he received from customers explaining how the iPhone and iPad had changed and even saved lives. One email was from a 100-year-old woman who had been an avid reader and writer all her life, before age had made these pastimes impossible. The iPad bought for her by her family had allowed her to take up reading and writing again, long after she had all but given up hope.

Forstall also spoke touchingly about his friendship with Jobs, including the time when Forstall contracted a rare and potentially lethal vomiting virus which left him in hospital for months, before the late Apple CEO arranged for an acupuncturist to treat him. After two sessions, Forstall was discharged from hospital and went on to make a complete recovery.

Forstall shared a particularly funny anecdote about how Jobs insisted on paying for both their lunches at the Apple cafeteria, despite the fact that the $8 meals were charged against staff paychecks with each scan of their badges, and as CEO, Jobs only got paid a dollar a year.

Lastly, Forstall said he is not currently developing technology himself, and will continue his work in an advisory capacity. You can watch all of the interviews on Facebook.

Tags: Scott Forstall, Computer History Museum
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iPhone 8 is Causing Other Smartphone Makers to Scramble for NAND Memory Chips

Apple’s ramping up of “iPhone 8” component production is causing some electronics manufacturers to scramble for parts, particularly DRAM chips and NAND memory chips, ahead of the expected September launch of the three 2017 iPhones. The companies are said to be “paying a premium” to sign longer-term contracts as well as placing component orders ahead of time to prevent low inventories from disappearing completely amid Apple’s supply chain dominance.

One of the manufacturers looking to make sure it doesn’t run out of parts is LG Electronics, which said it has decided on an earlier procurement strategy for gathering components “to ensure a stable supply.” NAND chip maker SK Hynix also told Reuters that its supply conditions were “tight” and that its inventory levels “were at an all-time low,” with no clear indication in sight when they would rise to normal again.

iPhone 8 renders combined with iOS 11 via iDrop News
Analysts believe that the NAND memory chip market will be particularly affected, given Apple’s move in recent years to bump up storage on the smartphone. The current shortage is said to have been making waves through various smartphone device suppliers beginning in the first half of 2017.

Some analysts say device makers could be forced to cut down on the amount of DRAM chips, which help devices perform multiple tasks at once, or NAND chips that are used for long-term data storage, on new products if the cannot get enough chips.

“The problem will be more acute for the NAND market, where the iPhone remains a critical source of demand given the huge sales volumes and recent moves to increase storage capacity on the device,” said the source, who declined to be identified as he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

“Heavyweight” NAND suppliers, like Samsung, are said to be in the clear in regards to the predicted component shortage, but in the worst case scenario it has already hit smartphone maker Huawei in China. Customers in the country have raised criticisms at the company after it used a collection of “less advanced and powerful chips” in its flagship smartphone, the P10, resulting in drastic performance variations among users.

In total, Apple is said to purchase 18 percent of the world’s supply of NAND memory chips and that number will only increase if Apple decides to ship more iPhones than usual, or further bump up the storage tiers on the 2017 iPhone models. A rumored premium price tag on the iPhone 8 suggests that Apple might be planning to introduce a storage capacity above the iPhone 7’s top-tier option of 256GB, but reports still vary, with TrendForce believing the device will come in 64GB and 256GB only.

In separate supply chain reports this week made by DigiTimes, smaller Apple component suppliers have begun ramping up manufacturing for parts believed to be coming to iPhone 8, iPhone 7s, and iPhone 7s Plus. Metal-alloy chassis maker Catcher Technology is gearing up production for the 2017 iPhone 7s’ aluminum metal casing — stainless steel is reportedly coming only to iPhone 8 — as well as its glass back covers.

Similarly, Lite-On Semiconductor is said to have entered the supply chain for the three new 2017 iPhones by becoming a provider of glass passivated package bridge rectifiers “for the support of fast wireless charging.”

Analysts believe Apple could ship as many as 100 million iPhone 8 devices this year, and that “meaningful new supply” for NAND and DRAM chips won’t arrive in the supply chain until 2018.

Related Roundup: iPhone 8
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JanSport’s latest backpack is basically a giant QR code

Why it matters to you

If you get one of these, you may have to attach a small sign telling others that

You may well consider QR codes as a relic of a past digital age, but leading bagmaker JanSport is having none of it.

The company has recently developed a backpack that acts as a kind of QR code so the wearer can share stuff like their favorite music video or an Instagram profile or website.

The backpack — part of a project aimed at repurposing fabrics as programmable devices — is currently a prototype and could be a new way for people to share interests instead of adorning their bags with stickers and patches, CNN reports.

Steve Munn, president of JanSport Americas, said that while a backpack is primarily “a place to put something to eat, something to drink and something to wear … now it becomes potentially an avenue for social interaction.”

JanSport partnered with Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Yoel Fink, CEO of Advanced Functional Fabrics of America, to create the special QR-code backpack.

Three hundred of the bags have been produced, each with their own unique design. At the current time, the technology requires a special app to read the bag’s unique “code,” making it rather less useful than typical QR-code technology that works with a slew of existing reader apps.

But it works in a similar way. In other words, if you point your smartphone camera at the bag and take a picture, the app reads the unique code and takes you to online content to which the bag’s owner has already linked.

Munn told CNN that many companies ask him about the possibly of incorporating “complex gimmicks” into bags, but this particular design appealed to him because there’s no physical technology involved, although it still links users directly and quickly to the digital world.

While JanSport’s experimental bag may appeal to some, the likelihood is that most people who see it won’t even know it features a connection to the digital world, causing many to ignore it. In that case, the user’s efforts to share online content will prove largely ineffective. With that in mind, a QR-code sticker or patch attached to the bag is likely to prove far more useful.

JanSport’s bag is, however, another indication of how smart fabrics and clothing are gaining traction, with many viewing the technology as the future of wearables.

The company is yet to decide whether to put the backpack on the market, though if it does it won’t be until the end of 2018 at the earliest.